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BRAIN  AND  PERSONALITY 


BRAIN  AND  PERSONALITY 

OR  THE  PHYSICAL  RELATIONS  OF 
THE  BRAIN  TO  THE  MIND 


BY 


WILLIAM  HANNAvTHOMSON,  M.D.,  LL.D. 


•v^ 


PHYSICIAN  TO  THB  BOOBISVII.T  HOSPITAL;  CONStTLTINS 
PHYSIC  AK  TO  NKW  YORK  8TATK  MANHATTAN  HOS- 
PITALS FOR  THB  INSANB;  CONSXTLTING  PHYSICIAN  TO 
THE  NEW  YORK  BED  CROSS  HC8PITAL  ;  FORMBRLT 
PROFESSOR  OF  THB  PRACTICE  OF  MEDICINE  AND  OP 
DISEASES  OF  THB  NERVOUS  SYSTEM,  NEW  YORK 
0NIVKRSITT  MEDICAL  COLLBOE  ;  EX-PRESIDENT  OP 
THK      KBW      TOBK      ACADEMY       OP      MEDICINE,      ETC. 


NEW    YORK 

DODD,    MEAD    &    COMPANY 

1912 


CopmiOHT,  1906,  BY 
DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

PnbliBhed,  September,  1906 


PnniTBD  IN  Amsbica 


WL 

T3J7t> 

PREFACE  TO  THE  EIGHTH  EDITION 

Since  the  first  edition  of  this  book  was  is- 
sued I  have  received  a  number  of  inquiries 
relating  to  certain  subjects  referred  to  in 
it,  about  which  the  writers  desired  further 
information.  1  have  endeavored  to  do  so 
in  a  few  instances,  particularly  in  Chapter 
.VIII,  with  a  note  on  the  relations  of 
Ambidextry  to  the  education  of  a  brain 
hemisphere. 

WILLIAM   H.  THOMSON 

New  York,  Feb.  25,  1908 


CONTENTS 

CHAFTZB  TJlQM 

I    Historical  Introduction    ...      1 

II    Account  of  the  Physical   Basis  of 

THE  Mind 32 

III  Brain  Weight  and  ^Mental  Faculty    48 

IV  Significance  of  the  Brain  Being  a 

Double  or  Pair  Organ  .        .        .60 

V  The  Faculty  of  Speech     .        .        .75 

VI  The  Faculty  of  Speech — Continued  .  106 

VII  Evolution  of  a  Nervous  System      .  132 

VIII  The  Brain  and  Personality      .        .  175 

IX  Practical  Applications      .        .        .  242 

X  The  Significance  of  Sleep        •        .  286 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

CHAPTER   I 

HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

There  is  no  more  interesting  subject  in 
science  than  the  physical  conditions  under 
which  we  become  thinking  beings.  Though 
science  is  concerned  with  the  knowledge 
which  comes  from  investigation  and  experi- 
ment in  the  physical  world,  yet  she  cannot 
evade  being  questioned  about  the  relations 
of  matter  to  mind,  because  the  bodily  organ 
of  the  mind  is  a  thing  of  physics.  Hence 
however  discussion  about  mind  may  be 
waived  as  pertaining  to  the  province  of  meta- 
physics this  cannot  be  done  with  that  collec- 
tion of  matter  which  is  called  the  brain.  In 
it  mind  and  matter  come  together,  and  there- 

1 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

fore  we  cannot  help  asking  how  much  the  one 
is  dependent  upon  the  other. 

As  far  as  the  mind  is  concerned,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  no  study  of  its  own  opera- 
tions can  give  the  least  inkling  on  this  ques- 
tion, any  more  than  a  study  of  the  words  of 
a  telegram  would  reveal  how  a  wire  came  to 
conduct  them.  The  passage  of  thought  in 
the  one  case  and  of  words  in  the  other  are 
equally  invisible.  But  the  wire  can  be  fol- 
lowed up  until  it  connects  with  a  mechanism 
which  generates  the  words  for  the  wire  to 
transmit.  Can  any  analogous  result  be  ex- 
pected from  an  examination  of  the  physical 
mechanism  through  which  the  mind  acts? 

The  answer  is  that  something  of  the  kind 
seems  to  be  assured  by  modern  discoveries 
of  definite  relations  between  particular  por- 
tions of  brain  matter  and  thought.  That 
there  are  certain  material  seats  of  purely 
mental  functions  in  the  brain  is  now  demon- 
trated  beyond  mistake  by  the  fact  that  when 
these  are  physically  disorganized  their  spe- 

2 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

cial  mental  functions  are  forthwith  abolished, 
though  all  other  places  in  the  brain  remain 
intact. 

It  is  significant,  however,  that  these  dis- 
coveries relate  in  the  first  instance  to  the 
working  of  the  brain  of  Man  in  distinction 
from  the  brains  of  animals.  Restricted  to 
the  brains  of  animals  which  they  could  ex- 
periment with,  physiologists  would  have 
been  but  little  able  to  determine  what  special 
relations  the  brain  held  to  thought.  But 
with  the  brain  of  man  it  has  proved  to  be 
wholly  different,  because,  unlike  animals,  man 
possesses  a  faculty  which  is  directly  related 
to  thought,  the  great  faculty  of  speech,  and 
the  specific  anatomical  seats  of  speech  have 
been  found  in  the  human  brain  as  certainly 
as  the  ticker  is  found  in  its  place  in  a  tele- 
graph office. 

It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  it 
was  reserved  for  physicians  and  not  for 
psychologists  to  light  upon  these  great  dis- 
coveries by  their  observing  what  may    be 

3 


BRAIN    AND     PERSONALITY 

termed  the  effects  of  experiments  with  the 
human  brain  which  disease  makes  for  them. 

While  it  has  been  a  distinct  gain  for  psy- 
chologists to  leave  metaphysics  and  turn  their 
attention  to  the  general  physiology  of  the 
nervous  system,  the  criticism  may  be  made 
that  apart  from  the  human  brain  the  field  of 
psychology  is  very  limited  as  far  as  the  rela- 
tion of  mind  to  matter  is  concerned.  A  single 
very  circumscribed  injury  to  a  place  in  the 
human  brain  may  teach  more  on  this  subject 
than  a  survey  of  the  whole  domain  of  nervous 
physiology  in  animals.  This  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  fact  that  the  identification  of 
speech  centers  in  the  brain  ere  long  led  to 
the  discovery,  again  by  medical  men,  of  the 
material  seats  of  a  whole  series  of  other  fac- 
ulties both  sensory  and  intellectual;  so  that 
taken  together  these  findings  give  to  the 
subject  of  the  physical  relations  of  the  brain 
to  the  mind  an  entirely  new  aspect. 

These  discoveries,  however,  have  all  been 
made  within  the  lifetime  of  our  own  genera- 

4 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

tion.  On  that  account  they  are  scarcely 
known  to  the  general  public,  and  their  impor- 
tant bearing  on  the  old  question  of  matter 
and  mind  is  even  less  appreciated.  Few  per- 
sons are  aware  how  slow  the  progress  of 
knowledge  has  been  of  the  actual  physical  re- 
lations of  the  mind  to  the  body,  and  hence  an 
historical  review  of  that  progress  would 
seem  to  be  a  fitting  introduction  to  our  pres- 
ent discussion. 

Thus  the  word  brain  does  not  once  occur  in 
the  Bible,  for  the  good  reason  that  during  the 
centuries  in  which  its  different  books  were 
written  scarcely  any  one  in  the  world  sus- 
pected that  this  most  silent  and  secluded  of 
organs  had  anything  to  do  with  thought  or 
feeling.  The  earliest  identification  of  the 
mind  with  a  bodily  organ  we  find  among  the 
Babylonians,  who  located  it  in  the  liver. 
Their  priests  therefore  elaborated  a  great 
system  of  omens  based  upon  the  appearances 
of  this  organ  in  the  animals  offered  up  for 
sacrifice.  With  the  Hebrews,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  heart  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  soul, 
while  the  mind  was  located  in  the  kidneys,  and 
all  tender  emotions  in  the  bowels.    Thus,  one 

5 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

psalmist  says  that  ''His  reins  [kidneys]  in- 
struct him  in  the  night  seasons" ;  and  another 
that  "The  Lord  trieth  the  heart  and  the  kid- 
neys." The  prophet  Jeremiah  denounces  the 
hypocrites  of  his  day,  who  *'had  the  Lord  in 
their  mouths,  but  not  in  their  kidneys."  In 
keeping  with  similar  expressions  in  the  Old 
Testament  St.  Paul  speaks  of  ''bowels  of 
mercies."  A  survival  of  these  conceptions  is 
found  in  our  English  phrase,  "Two  fellows 
of  the  same  kidney." 

Nor  for  a  long  time  were  the  ideas  of  the 
Greeks  on  this  subject  much  nearer  the  mark. 
It  is  true  that  Plato  assigns  the  supreme  seat 
of  the  mind  to  the  brain,  but  how  purely 
speculative  were  his  views  is  illustrated  by 
the  following  quotation : 

"The  creation  of  bones  and  flesh  was  in 
this  wise. 

"  The  foundation  of  these  is  the  marrow 
which  binds  together  body  and  soul,  and  the 
marrow  is  made  out  of  such  of  the  primary 
triangles  as  are  adapted  by  their  perfection 
to  produce  all  the  four  elements.  These  God 
took  and  mingled  them  in  due  proportion, 
making  as  many  kinds  of  marrow  as  there 

6 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

were  to  be  hereafter  kinds  of  souls.  The  re- 
ceptacle of  the  divine  soul  He  made  round, 
and  called  that  portion  of  the  marrow  brain, 
intending  that  the  vessel  containing  this  sub- 
stance should  be  the  head.  The  bones  were 
formed  by  sifting  pure  earth  and  wetting  it 
with  marrow.  It  was  then  thrust  alternately 
into  fire  and  water,  and  thus  rendered  insolu- 
ble by  either.  As  the  bone  was  brittle  and 
liable  to  mortify  and  destroy  the  marrow  by 
too  great  rigidity.  He  contrived  sinews  and 
flesh,  the  first  to  give  plasticity,  the  second  to 
guard  against  heat  and  cold.  Having  this  in 
view,  the  Creator  mingled  earth  with  water, 
and  mixed  with  them  a  ferment  with  acid  and 
salt,  so  as  to  form  pulpy  flesh,  etc. ' '  ^ 

It  is  evident  that  Plato  in  this  confounded 
the  substance  of  the  brain  and  of  the  spinal 
cord  with  the  marrow  of  the  bones,  and  thus 
got  his  conception  of  marrow  as  the  founda- 
tion of  the  living  body.  But  his  younger  con- 
temporary, Aristotle,  circ.  B.C.  335,  who  was 

*  Jowett's  Translation,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  339  sq,  362. 

7 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

the  foremost  physiologist  of  his  day,  and  him- 
self the  son  of  a  physician,  scouted  all  this 
vital  farrago  of  Plato  *s,  and  as  Plato  evolved 
it  all  out  of  his  own  head,  without  troubling 
himself  about  facts,  he  had  little  difficulty  in 
doing  so.  Aristotle  examined  the  brain  for 
himself,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  its 
function  had  nothing  to  do  with  mind,  but 
that  it  was  a  cool  organ  which  properly  re- 
frigerated the  blood  for  the  heart ! 

We  may  be  tempted  to  smile  now  at  this 
conclusion,  but  Aristotle  was  no  mere  theo- 
rist, and  he  reasoned  according  to  a  sound 
scientific  method  from  facts  as  he  knew  them. 
We  must  put  ourselves  in  his  place,  with 
nothing  to  go  by  more  than  certain  patent 
facts  of  life,  the  explanation  of  which  by 
other  facts  was  then  unknown  to  him.  He 
found  the  brain  an  apparently  insensible  and 
inexcitable  organ,  while  the  heart  was  ex- 
tremely excitable.  He  therefore  only  fol- 
lowed his  great  predecessor  Hippocrates, 
the  Father  of  Medicine,  who,    recognizing 

8 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

how  quickly  consciousness  is  abolished  by 
loss  of  blood,  or  deranged  by  blood  poisons, 
or  by  the  heated  blood  of  fevers,  inferred 
that  the  conscious  mind  resided  in  the  blood, 
and  hence  that  the  heart,  as  the  central  organ 
of  the  circulation,  was  itself  the  chief  seat  of 
the  soul. 

Another  cause  of  misunderstanding  was 
that,  as  the  arteries  are  found  empty  after 
death,  owing  to  their  contractile  walls  ex- 
pelling the  blood  from  them,  it  was  con- 
cluded that  these  vessels  carried  air  or 
ethereal  spirits  from  the  heart  to  the  rest 
of  the  body.  We  shall  see  that  nothing  so 
contributed  to  delay  for  centuries  all  prog- 
ress as  this  mistake,  by  its  suggesting  the 
existence  and  all-pervading  power  of  vital 
spirits. 

Supported  by  such  great  names  as  Hippoc- 
rates and  Aristotle,  these  beliefs  held  sway 
for  fully  five  centuries,  along  with  specula- 
tions how  from  the  blood  the  different  or- 
gans of  the  body,  such  as  the  stomach,  liver, 

9 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

spleen,  intestines,  etc.,  elaborated  each  its 
share  of  the  various  appetites  or  emotions. 

Meanwhile,  in  this  wilderness  of  Greek 
speculation,  a  voice  had  been  crying  in  vain 
the  true  doctrine  about  the  brain  long  before 
Plato  or  any  of  the  rest.  Alcmaeon,  the  Py- 
thagorean of  Crotona,  who  lived  about  B.C. 
500,  a  man  who  was  both  an  anatomist  and  an 
experimental  physiologist,  taught  that  the 
brain  was  the  sole  seat  of  the  mind  and  the 
source  of  feeling  and  of  movement,  and  that 
at  the  brain  arrived  all  sensation  by  means  of 
the  nerves.  It  is  evident  that  he  was  led  to  do 
this  by  noting  that  severing  the  optic  nerves 
leading  from  the  eyes  to  the  brain  produced 
total  blindness.  Unfortunately  he  called  the 
nerves  tendons,  a  term  which,  with  its  er- 
roneous suggestions,  continued  to  be  applied 
to  them  for  two  thousand  years,  until  finally 
the  great  Descartes  demonstrated  the  essen- 
tial difference  between  tendons  and  nerves. 
(Even  Shakespeare  when  he  spoke  of  nerves 
meant  sinews.) 

10 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

But  whether  from  Alcmaeon's  colonial  ori- 
gin, or  because  he  was  far  in  advance  of  his 
time,  both  Plato  and  Aristotle,  who  must 
have  read  his  works,  alluded  to  them  con- 
temptuously as  **  somebody's  "  views.  Ar- 
istotle, indeed,  taught  that  the  spinal  cord 
had  nothing  in  common  with  the  brain,  and 
evidently  paid  little  attention  to  its  "ten- 
dons "  or  nerves. 

In  progress  of  time  a  great  school  of  anat- 
omists and  experimental  physiologists  arose 
in  Alexandria,  of  whom  Herophilus,  circ. 
B.C.  300,  and  his  contemporary,  Erastistra- 
tus,  were  the  chief,  who  carefully  dissected 
the  brain  and  traced  to  it  the  nerves  of  the 
special  senses,  as  AlcmaBon  had  done.  They 
went  so  far  as  to  divide  the  nerves  into  those 
of  sensation  and  of  motion,  though  they  were 
still  hampered  by  Alcmaeon's  term  "  ten- 
don," and  apparently  they  could  not  wholly 
shake  off  the  authority  of  Aristotle  as  to  the 
functions  of  the  brain. 

They  prepared  the  way,  however,  for  Ga- 
ll 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

len,  circ.  A.D.  160,  to  whom  we  are  chiefly  in- 
debted for  the  overthrow  of  Aristotle's  doc- 
trine about  the  brain,  and  the  demonstration 
of  its  exclusive  title  as  the  seat  of  thought 
and  feeling.  To  this  great  physician  belongs 
the  distinction  of  establishing  this  doctrine 
for  all  time.  A  contemporary  of  his,  Are- 
taBus  of  Cappadocia,  circ.  A.D.  170,  advanced 
so  far  as  to  recognize  correctly  that  the  brain 
dominated  the  muscular  movements  of  the 
body  by  nerves,  which,  originating  in  the 
brain,  crossed  their  tracts  below  in  the  form 
of  the  letter  X,  so  that  injuries  in  one 
hemisphere  of  the  brain  paralyzed  the  mus- 
cles of  the  opposite  side  of  the  body,  while 
if  they  occurred  in  the  spinal  cord  below  the 
medulla,  the  resulting  paralysis  was  on  the 
same  side  with  the  injury.  But  even  Are- 
tsBus  held  that  the  seat  of  the  soul  was  in  the 
heart. 

After  Galen  the  progress  of  discovery  of 
the  true  functions  of  the  brain  was  extraor- 
dinarily slow.    From  the  middle  of  the  second 

12 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

century  A.D.  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  or  1,700  years,  the  actual  gains  in 
this  knowledge  were  relatively  most  insig- 
nificant compared  with  the  splendid  advances 
in  astronomy,  geography,  physical  science, 
chemistry  and  geology.  It  would  seem  as 
if  "to  know  thyself  "  scientifically  rather 
than  metaphysically,  instead  of  being  the  first 
was  destined  to  be  among  the  latest  of  human 
achievements. 

One  great  cause  for  this  backwardness  was 
the  persistent  sway  of  teleology  in  all  ques- 
tions about  life.  Men  were  ever  trying  to  ex- 
plain the  reasons  of  things  by  the  imagined 
purposes  of  things,  and  to  find  the  causes 
in  the  purposes.  Thus  we  have  seen  that 
Plato's  whole  physiology  originated  in  what 
he  fancied  the  Creator  and  the  gods  intended 
when  they  made  this  or  that  part  of  the  living 
body.  And  all  the  long  way  down  the  cen- 
turies we  meet  with  examples  of  reasoning 
on  these  subjects  not  unlike  that  of  the  phi- 
losopher who  admired  the  benevolent  wis- 
13 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

dom  of  Providence  in  arranging  that  large 
rivers  should  flow  past  large  towns. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  these  hindrances 
was  the  conception  of  the  brain  as  a  secret- 
ing gland,  which  dates  from  Hippocrates  and 
continues  down  to  Karl  Vogt,  Cabanis,  and 
other  writers  in  the  earlier  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  who  maintained  that  the 
brain  secreted  thought  just  as  the  liver  se- 
cretes bile.  Hippocrates  writes  that:  **  The 
brain  resembles  a  gland,  being  white  and  soft 
like  glands.  It  discharges  the  same  glandu- 
lar offices  as  regards  the  head.  It  rids  the 
head  of  its  humidity,  and  returns  to  the  ex- 
tremities the  surplus  of  its  flux. ' '  With  this 
postulate,  that  it  is  a  gland,  one  authority 
after  another  attempted  to  represent  the 
brain's  secretion  as  a  kind  of  subtle  fluid 
termed  "animal  spirits,"  which  permeated 
the  body  through  the  blood.  Thus  Descartes 
taught  that  the  left  ventricle  of  the  heart  sep- 
arated these  animal  spirits,  which  had  been 
generated  in  the  brain,  and  distilled  them  out 

14 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

of  the  blood  into  a  "  very  living  and  very 
pure  flame,"  and  then  distributed  them 
through  the  arteries.  These  animal  spirits, 
therefore,  were  readily  made  to  account  for 
everything,  normal  and  abnormal.  Hence,  it 
was  due  to  noxious  vapors  and  humors  that 
every  variety  of  bodily  disorder  took  its  rise. 

To  illustrate  how  effectually  such  concep- 
tions served  to  block  all  progress  in  the 
science  of  life  we  may  quote  one  instance 
from  a  ponderous  volume  in  my  library  with 
the  date  1618,  on  ''Physiology  and  Anat- 
omy," by  Hilkiah  Crooke,  Physician  and 
Professor  on  Ajiatomy  and  Chirurgery  to 
His  Majesty,  James  I. 

Speaking  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  hair, 
he  says:  **  The  immediate  matter  of  the 
haires  is  a  sooty,  thicke,  and  earthy  vapour, 
which  in  the  time  of  the  third  concoction  [dis- 
tillation] is  elevated  by  the  strength  of  the 
action  of  naturall  heate,  and  passeth  through 
the  pores  of  the  skin,  which  heate  exiceateth 
or  drieth  this  moysture  of  these  sootie  and 
15 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

thicke  vapours,  for  the  vapour  being  thicke, 
in  his  passage  leaveth  some  part  of  it  selfe, 
to  wit,  the  grossest,  in  the  very  outlet,  where 
it  is  impacted  by  a  succeeding  vapour  arising 
where  the  former  did,  is  protruded  and 
thrust  forward,  so  that  they  are  wrought  to- 
gether in  one  body.  The  straightness  of  the 
passages  of  the  skin  where  through  the  mat- 
ter of  the  haires  is  auoyded,  formeth  them 
into  a  small  roundness,  even  as  a  wyre  re- 
ceyeth  that  proportion  whereof  the  whole  is, 
where  through  it  is  drawne." 

One  great  office  of  the  hairs  of  the  head, 
therefore,  Crooke  perceived  to  be  to  lead  off 
"  the  vapours  which  otherwise  would  choke 
and  make  smoaky  the  braine,"  though  how 
hopelessly  choked  the  brains  of  all  bald 
heads  hence  would  be  he  does  not  mention. 
Crooke  *s  illustrious  contemporary.  Lord  Ba- 
con, held  that  the  blood  did  not  distend  the 
heart,  nor  cause  it  to  beat,  but  that  was  done 
by  its  contained  spirits.  Even  Harvey's  dis- 
covery of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  did  not 
16 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

dislodge  these  pure  nonentities  from  the 
brain,  for  we  find  as  late  as  1824,  Dr.  J.  Ma- 
son Good,  in  his  '*  Study  of  Medicine,"  men- 
tioning the  fact  that  the  brain  being  a  gland, 
the  nervous  power  or  energy  issues  from  it 
as  a  fluid  of  a  peculiar  kind,  and  if  so  distrib- 
uted by  its  nerves. 

It  was  the  introduction  of  the  microscope 
into  the  investigation  of  nervous  tissues 
which  first  really  exorcised  the  '*  animal 
spirits  "  from  the  medical  world.  Their  ob- 
jective existence  in  fact  had  often  been  called 
in  question  before,  but  it  was  difficult  to  ban- 
ish these  airy  creations  altogether  until  some 
solid  physical  facts  could  be  found  which 
would  dispose  of  them. 

Without  the  microscope  we  could  never 
have  known  what  every  living  texture  really 
is,  nor  after  what  fashion  it  is  constructed. 
With  the  microscope  Ehrenberg  made  in  1833 
the  first  discovery  of  a  nerve  cell  in  a  spinal 
ganglion,  and  four  years  later  Purkinje  dem- 
onstrated that  the  gray  matter  of  the  cere- 
17 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

brum  and  of  the  cerebellum  is  made  up 
of  nervous  cells  and  their  fibers.  This 
was  followed  in  the  next  year  by  the  pub- 
lication of  the  great  work  of  Schleiden 
and  Schwann,  in  which  they  proved  that 
all  vegetable  and  animal  tissues  are  made 
up  of  cells  and  the  products  of  cells.  The 
intimate  structure  of  all  tissues  and  or- 
gans was  thus  revealed,  and  each  was  found 
to  be  perfectly  characteristic  of  its  kind, 
whether  bony,  tendinous,  glandular,  muscu- 
lar, nervous,  etc.  Nervous  tissue  especially  is 
very  peculiar  and  unlike  anything  else  in  the 
body,  and  least  of  all  like  glandular  tissue. 
The  brain,  therefore,  was  thus  shown  to  be 
no  more  a  gland  than  a  hand  or  foot  is,  and 
that  it  never  secretes  anything.  The  brain 
instead  is  a  special  and  distinct  organ,  con- 
necting with  nothing  but  nerves,  acting  and 
acted  upon  only  through  nerves  or  nervous 
masses,  called  ganglia,  which  are  distributed 
through  the  body. 
It  was  not  long  before  this  conception  of 
18 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

the  brain  as  a  separate  mechanism  in  us,  con- 
structed after  its  own  pattern,  began  to  give 
rise  to  a  new  batch  of  theories.  Gall — to 
whom  brain  anatomy  owes  a  good  deal,  par- 
ticularly in  the  tracing  of  the  course  of  the 
brain  fibers  down  through  the  medulla  ob- 
longata— regarding  the  brain  as  one  organ, 
conceived  that  its  convolutions  served  to 
mark  it  off  into  so  many  compartments,  each 
with  its  distinctive  mental  functions  which 
he  proceeded  to  identify.  He  thus  made  out 
a  list  of  twenty-four  brain  localities  pos- 
sessed with  special  intellectual  or  moral 
attributes,  and  which  his  pupil  Spurzheim 
increased  to  thirty-eight.  Now  as  all  individ- 
uals have  their  personal  peculiarities  of  mind 
and  of  disposition,  these,  in  turn,  could  be 
explained  by  the  development  of  their  cor- 
responding convolutions.  Thus,  a  mathema- 
tician would  have  a  highly  developed  mathe- 
matical convolution,  and  a  combative  man 
would  possess  his  brain  seat  of  combative- 
ness,  etc.  This  so-called  science  of  phren- 
19 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

ology  had  great  vogue  for  a  time,  owing  to  its 
further  assumption  that  the  outer  contour  of 
the  head  corresponded  to  the  arrangements 
of  the  convolutions  within,  and  thus  afforded 
a  ready  physical  basis  for  estimating  what 
manner  of  man  or  woman  each  person  was. 
So  popular  became  this  supposed  scientific 
standard  of  individuality,  that  I  once  heard 
a  prominent  clergyman  remark  that  before 
he  addressed  a  young  man  about  his  soul  he 
wished  he  could  be  allowed  to  feel  his 
'*  bumps.'* 

But  as  in  the  case  of  animal  spirits,  so 
phrenology  had  to  disappear  before  facts.  It 
was  shown  that  Gall  and  his  followers  did  not 
study  a  sufficient  number  of  brains,  because, 
on  the  one  hand,  their  mathematical  convo- 
lutions were  found  as  largely  developed  in 
the  brains  of  paupers,  dying  in  hospitals,  as 
in  the  few  mathematicians  whose  brains  Gall 
had  investigated;  while  the  brains  of  some 
eminent  men  had  no  specially  developed  con- 
volutions where  they  ought  to  have  had  them. 
20 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

On  the  other  hand,  while  the  inner  table  of 
the  skull  corresponds  in  a  general  waj  with 
the  subjacent  convolutions,  it  does  not  keep 
shape  with  any  special  convolution  whatever ; 
while  as  respects  the  outer  table  of  the  skull 
there  may  be  no  correspondence  at  all. 
Phrenology,  therefore,  gradually  became  the 
exclusive  property  of  popular  lecturers,  who 
illustrated  its  doctrines  with  plates  of  vari- 
ously labeled  heads. 

The  period  between  1845  and  1860  was 
marked  by  notable  advances,  not  only  in  gen- 
eral physiology,  but  also  in  the  physiology  of 
the  brain  and  of  the  nervous  system.  The 
great  principle  of  reflex  action,  that  is,  of  the 
afferent  and  efferent  elements  in  all  nervous 
processes,  was  established,  and  many  of  the 
amazingly  intricate  paths  of  nerve  fibers  in 
the  spinal  cord  and  in  the  brain  were  traced 
out.  France  at  that  time  took  the  lead  in  all 
branches  of  medical  science,  and  the  names  of 
Majendie,  Longet,  Flourens,  Gratiolet,  and 
others  like  them  will  always  rank  high  in  the 
21 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

annals  of  neurology.  It  is  not  easy  at  this 
day  to  appreciate  what  a  paramount  influence 
was  exerted  in  the  medical  world  by  this 
school  of  Paris,  whose  lecture  rooms  were 
crowded  by  students  from  all  countries. 

But,  partly  as  a  reaction  from  the  doc- 
trines of  phrenology,  all  separate  localiza- 
tion of  functions  in  the  brain  was  strongly 
denied,  while  the  opposite  and  no  less  erro- 
neous teaching  was  promulgated,  that  the 
brain  always  acts  as  a  whole.  The  cerebral 
convolutions  were  regarded  as  the  **  senso- 
rium  commune,'*  and,  as  one  of  them  ex- 
pressed it,  *'  any  specific  vibration  initiated 
in  each  kind  of  sensory  nerve  thrills  through- 
out the  whole  or  greater  part  of  the  mass  of 
the  brain."  Thus  medical  opinion  seemed  to 
settle  down  to  the  conclusion  that  our  two 
brain  hemispheres  corresponded  to  our  two 
lungs,  in  the  respect  that  every  part  dis- 
charges the  same  functions  with  the  rest. 

But  a  great  change  was  impending.  On 
April  14,  1861,  an  eminent  French  hospital 
22 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

surgeon,  Paul  Broca,  read  a  paper  before  the 
Societe  d'Anthropologie  of  Paris,  in  which 
he  adduced  evidences  to  prove: 

That  there  is  a  definite  locality  in  the 
brain  which  is  the  sole  seat  of  articulate 
speech,  found  in  a  limited  area  in  the  lower 
and  posterior  part  of  the  convolution  called 
the  third  frontal  and  which  is  now  named 
"  Broca 's  convolution."  This  fact,  of 
course,  could  only  be  demonstrated  by  inju- 
ries to  that  part  in  the  human  subject,  and 
Broca  showed,  by  citing  a  number  of  post- 
mortem examinations  of  persons  dying  after 
paralysis  of  the  right  side  of  the  body,  usually 
due  to  apoplexy  and  who  with  the  onset  of  the 
paralysis  lost  the  power  of  utterance — that 
in  all  such  cases  damage  to  that  locality  was 
demonstrable.  As  this  statement  seemed  at 
first  to  be  a  reversion  to  the  tenets  of  phren- 
ology, it  gave  rise  to  so  much  heated  discus- 
sion and  denial,  that  it  was  not  until  about 
1865  that  it  began  to  be  generally  admitted. 

What  chiefly  led  to  its  final  acceptance  was 
23 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

the  further  discovery  that  the  two  other  ele- 
ments of  human  speech  besides  articulate 
utterance  also  have  each  their  distinct  and 
separate  brain  localities;  one  place  being 
found  for  the  words  we  receive  through  the 
ear,  damage  to  which  place  causes  word-deaf- 
ness, even  though  there  be  no  deafness  to 
other  sounds  than  words ;  and,  secondly,  one 
place  for  words  received  through  the  eye  in 
reading,  damage  to  which  causes  the  subject 
at  once  to  become  wholly  illiterate,  though  he 
may  see  and  recognize  all  other  objects  of 
sight,  except  words,  as  well  as  ever. 

The  demonstration  of  these  anatomical 
bases  of  the  faculty  of  speech  soon  led  to  care- 
ful experimental  investigation  of  the  brain  in 
animals  for  other  seats  of  distinct  functions, 
constituting  what  is  now  termed  cerebral  lo- 
calization, and  to  a  comparison  of  the  results 
achieved  with  the  effects  of  injury  or  of  dis- 
ease in  the  brain  of  man.  By  1870,  through 
the  labors  of  both  experimental  physiologists 
and  practicing  physicians,  such  as  Hitzig, 
24 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

Ferrier,  Munk,  Luciani,  Charcot  and  others, 
it  was  shown  that  each  of  the  special  senses 
has  its  anatomical  seat  in  the  brain;  and,  in 
addition  to  that,  in  a  centrally  placed  zone 
are  to  be  found  the  seats  governing  the  vol- 
untary movements  of  the  muscles  of  the  body, 
so  that  each  muscle,  or  group  of  muscles,  can 
be  made  to  contract  by  excitation  of  the  cor- 
responding locality  in  the  cortex  or  surface  of 
the  brain. 

These  discoveries  were  great  enough  of 
themselves,  but  they  are  relatively  of  sec- 
ondary importance  compared  with  those 
which  followed  and  which  will  cause  the  name 
of  Broca,  as  yet  scarcely  known  by  the  gen- 
eral public,  to  rank  in  the  history  of  science 
along  with  the  names  of  Copernicus  and  of 
Isaac  Newton.  The  anatomical  seats  of  the 
senses,  and  those  of  muscular  movements,  are 
found  equally  in  both  hemispheres  of  the 
brain,  and  their  functions,  as  such,  are  doubt- 
less congenital.  It  was  thus  natural  to  in- 
fer, as  the  brain  is  a  double  organ,  like  our 
25 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

two  eyes  and  our  two  ears,  each  hemisphere 
being  the  duplicate  of  the  other,  that  both 
brains  would  equally  participate  in  all  brain 
work. 

But  a  most  unexpected  fact,  and  one  of  far- 
reaching  significance,  was  soon  demonstrat- 
ed, namely,  that  the  anatomical  seats  of  the 
faculty  of  speech  are  f oimd  only  in  one  of  the 
two  hemispheres.  Thus,  if  the  Broca  convo- 
lution, which  is  the  seat  of  articulate  speech, 
be  damaged  in  a  person  after  middle  life,  the 
loss  is  usually  irremediable,  so  that  he  can 
speak  no  longer  though  the  same  convolution 
in  the  other  hemisphere  be  wholly  intact.  The 
same  is  true  as  regards  word-deafness  or 
word-blindness  from  injury  of  their  respect- 
ive places,  for  the  corresponding  localities  in 
the  other  hemisphere,  though  not  hurt  at  all, 
nevertheless  are  entirely  word-deaf  and 
word-blind,  simply  because  they  never  had 
anything  to  do  with  speech. 

But  here  again  another  new  element  in  the 
problem  presented  itself,  which  proved  that 

26 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

the  endowment  of  one  hemisphere  with  the 
great  gift  of  speech  was  not  owing  to  any 
original  or  special  fitness  of  that  hemisphere 
for  such  a  fmiction,  but  solely  because  it 
was  the  hemisphere  related  to  the  most  used 
hand  in  childhood.  In  all  right-handed  per- 
sons, it  is  in  the  left  brain  that  the  speech 
centers  are  located ;  while  in  left-handed  per- 
sons, they  are  found  exclusively  in  the  right 
brain. 

Two  conclusions  inevitably  follow  upon 
these  facts,  first,  that  brain  matter,  as  such, 
does  not  originate  speech,  for  then  both  hemi- 
spheres would  have  their  speech  centers ;  and 
second,  that  either  of  the  hemispheres  is 
equally  good  for  speech,  if  something  begins 
early  enough  in  life  to  use  it  for  that  purpose. 
That  something  is  the  most  commonly  used 
hand  by  the  human  child  at  the  time  when  it 
is  learning  everything,  for  self-education  al- 
ways begins  in  our  race  with  the  stretching 
forth  of  the  hand,  as  any  one  may  note  in  the 
first  purposive  actions  of  an  infant.  The 
27 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

hand  which  it  then  most  used  to  learn  by  de- 
termined which  of  its  two  brain  hemispheres 
should  know  speech,  and  which  hemisphere 
should  remain  wordless,  and  therefore 
thoughtless,  for  life. 

This  latter  statement,  that  thought,  as 
such,  is  a  function  only  of  the  hemisphere  con- 
nected with  the  faculty  of  speech,  was  deci- 
sively demonstrated  by  the  next  revelation 
which  followed  upon  Broca's  fruitful  discov- 
ery. Without  any  help  from  metaphysics, 
and  upon  a  much  surer  basis  than  any  meta- 
physical theories,  it  was  simply  found  as  a 
physical  fact  that  our  mental  faculties,  as 
such,  are  quite  distinct  from  the  elementary 
functions  of  sensation  and  of  motion.  These 
latter  are  congenital,  but  our  ability  to  recog- 
nize and,  therefore,  to  know  what  the  particu- 
lar objects  or  meanings  be  of  what  our  senses 
report,  is  not  congenital,  but  as  much  ac- 
quired by  us  as  our  speech  is  acquired 
and  not  congenital.  Because,  connected  with 
the  original  anatomical  seats  of  sight  and  of 

28 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

hearing  were  found  certain  physical,  anatom- 
ical areas  of  brain  matter,  injury  of  which 
abolished  all  power  to  recognize  what  the  eye 
sees  or  the  ear  hears.  In  the  visual  area  is 
a  place  which,  if  damaged,  renders  the  per- 
son unable  to  recognize  members  of  his  own 
family,  though  he  see  them;  and  in  the  audi- 
tory area  are  places,  one  of  which,  if  hurt, 
causes  the  person  to  be  no  longer  able  to 
know  his  most  familiar  tunes  when  he  hears 
them;  while,  by  injury  in  another  spot,  he 
loses  all  power  of  distinguishing  sounds  in 
general,  so  that  he  cannot  tell  the  bark  of  a 
dog  from  the  song  of  a  bird,  because  they  are 
alike  only  noises  to  him.  And  here  again, 
these  important  brain  areas  in  us,  interpret- 
ing what  sights  or  sounds  mean,  are  found 
only  in  the  left  hemisphere  of  the  right- 
handed,  and  in  the  right  hemisphere  of  the 
left-handed;  in  other  words,  in  the  hemi- 
sphere in  which  the  seats  of  the  faculty  of 
speech  are  located. 
The  decisive  bearing  of  these  pure  mat- 
29 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

ters  of  fact  upon  our  whole  discussion  of  the 
Physical  Relations  of  the  Brain  to  the  Mind 
and  to  the  Personality  is  plain  enough.  As 
none  of  these  wonderful  mental  faculties,  in- 
cluding that  of  speech,  were  connected  with 
brain  matter  at  birth,  but  were  created  after- 
wards, it  follows  that  they  were  created  by 
the  individual  himself  anatomically  modify- 
ing his  own  brain.  That  brain  matter  did  not 
itself  organize  these  physical  areas  of  mental 
function  is  shown  by  their  entire  absence 
from  the  convolutions  of  the  wordless  hemi- 
sphere. 

As  these  physical  relations  of  the  brain  to 
the  mind  are  to  be  fully  discussed  in  our  suc- 
ceeding chapters,  we  would  have  preferred 
not  to  have  alluded  to  them  so  far  in  advance, 
and  we  have  done  so  now  only  for  this  reason. 
Many  persons  may  imagine  that  such  a 
theme  must  involve  a  discussion  of  what  the 
mind  is,  and,  therefore,  enter  upon  the  wide 
domain  of  metaphysics.  We  propose  to  avoid 
anything  of  the  kind,  as  our  subject  deals  pri- 

30 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 

marily  with  a  thing  of  physics,  namely,  the 
brain.  But  the  main  facts  about  the  structure 
and  working  of  the  brain  are  of  such  recent 
discovery  that  they  scarcely  yet  have  become 
generally  known,  at  least  in  comparison  with 
the  latest  discoveries  in  the  physical  sciences. 
Regarded,  however,  simply  as  matters  of 
knowledge,  these  new  additions  to  our  infor- 
mation about  the  one  organ  in  us  which  is  re- 
lated to  thought  can  be  second  to  none  in  in- 
terest and  importance. 


Si 


CHAPTEE   II 

ACCOUNT  OF  THE  PHYSICAL.  BASIS  OP  THE  MIND 

Two  fundamentally  opposed  conceptions 
have  existed  about  the  relations  of  the  Brain 
to  the  Mind,  which  may  be  illustrated  by  com- 
paring the  brain  to  either  one  of  two  differ- 
ent instruments  or  mechanisms  for  producing 
music,  an  jiEolian  harp  or  a  violin.  Thus, 
if  the  brain  may  be  regarded  as  an  organ 
from  which  thoughts  proceed,  the  question 
then  becomes.  Do  thoughts  arise  in  it  as 
musical  sounds  flow  from  an  jEolian  harp  or 
as  they  come  from  a  violin  ? 

Both  the  ^olian  harp  and  the  violin  are 
constructed  by  threads  of  catgut  stretched 
over  apertures  in  a  wooden  box.  The  music 
of  the  ^olian  harp  comes  from  it  when  it  is 
placed  where  currents  of  air  can  flow  through 
its  threads,  and  its  notes  will  then  vary  ac- 

32 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS    OF    MIND 

cording  to  the  direction,  the  strength  and  the 
velocity  of  the  currents.  The  air  which  gen- 
erates the  music  is  a  part  of  the  whole  out- 
side atmosphere,  and  while  each  harp  has  its 
own  peculiarities  of  size,  number  of  threads, 
position,  etc.,  its  function  source  has  no  pe- 
culiarity, but  is  one  and  the  same  in  all.  In 
like  manner,  some  hold,  currents  of  thought 
are  excited  in  the  brain  by  the  incoming 
sensations  transmitted  from  without  by  the 
vibrations  of  the  various  nerve  fibers  which 
are  specially  adapted  to  receive  impres- 
sions, and  these  vibrations  in  turn  awaken 
those  responses  among  the  fibers  and  cells 
of  the  brain  which  constitute  feelings  and 
ideas. 

On  this  view  a  man's  brain  may  be  regarded 
as  a  specially  constructed  mechanism  whose 
individual  peculiarities  in  its  working,  as 
shown  in  his  daily  life,  are  all  due  to  the 
arrangement  of  its  material  component  parts. 
Some  lives  give  forth  long,  rich,  harmonious 
notes  throughout ;  others,  from  unhappy  dis- 
33 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

position  of  their  fibers,  give  forth  little  else 
than  prolonged  discords;  and  others  a 
strange  mixture  of  both;  bnt  all  these  indi- 
vidual, or  so-called  personal  characteristics 
are  matters  of  cerebral  structure,  as  this 
is  acted  upon  by  the  innumerable  nerve 
stimuli  proceeding  from  the  outer  world. 
More  or  less  defined  conceptions  of  this  kind 
about  the  relation  of  the  brain  to  the  mind  are 
quite  prevalent,  particularly  among  those 
who  emphasize  the  influence  of  heredity  in 
the  genesis  of  individual  or  moral  traits.  The 
logical  conclusion  of  this  position  is,  that  the 
mind  on  the  last  analysis  is  the  product  of 
the  composition  and  properties  of  brain  mat- 
ter, and  its  operations  of  whatever  sort  are 
reactions  among  the  brain  elements  to  the 
play  of  external  forces. 

The  other  and  essentially  different  concep- 
tion is  that  the  brain,  if  likened  to  a  musical 
instrument,  resembles  a  violin  in  that,  how- 
ever good  it  be  as  a  musical  instrument,  and 
however  carefully  it  has  to  be  constructed  in 

34 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS     OF     MIND 

all  its  parts  to  become  such  an  instrument, 
yet  of  itself  it  cannot  give  forth  a  musical 
note,  much  less  take  part  in  a  complex  sym- 
phony, without  a  musician  to  use  it.  There- 
fore, though  no  musician  can  give  us  violin 
music  without  a  violin,  so  no  violin  can  be 
musical  without  a  musician.  It  should  be 
noted  that  this  theory  requires  mechanism, 
and  the  complete  integrity  of  the  mechanism, 
quite  as  much  as  the  other.  In  fact,  the  musi- 
cal vibrations  within  the  box  depend  so  much 
for  their  qualities  upon  the  wood  out  of 
which  the  violin  is  made  that  extraordinary 
sums  have  been  paid  for  a  Stradivarius  on 
that  account  alone.  But  though  mechanism 
be  such  an  essential  element  in  both,  the  en- 
trance of  a  wholly  different  factor  in  the  case 
of  the  violin,  namely,  the  musician,  makes  it 
impossible  to  harmonize  the  analogies  to 
brain  function  drawn  from  these  two  instru- 
ments. In  the  one  we  have  only  the  effects 
of  external  forces  acting  upon  material 
things;  while  in  the  other  we  likewise  have 
35 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

material  things,  but  the  effects  come  from  a 
source  entirely  distinct  from  and  wholly  inde- 
pendent of  them.  We  only  need  now  to  fol- 
low up  each  of  these  views  to  their  inevitable 
conclusions  to  recognize  how  far  apart  they 
are.  The  one  regards  the  mind  as  wholly  of 
the  brain,  and  hence  the  mind  can  have  no 
existence  apart  from  the  brain.  The  other 
regards  the  brain  as  nothing  more  than  the 
instrument  of  the  mind,  and  no  instrument- 
can  possibly  be  identical  with  the  agency 
which  uses  it. 

As  the  brain  itself  gave  not  the  least  sign 
of  its  activities,  so  much  so  that,  as  already 
mentioned,  the  world  for  ages  did  not  sus- 
pect that  it  had  any  connection  with  thought 
or  feeling,  it  was  natural  that  the  discussion 
should  center  first  about  the  terms  mind  and 
body.  As  regards  the  mind,  the  processes 
themselves  of  thought  appeared  to  offer  in 
their  genesis  and  sequence  the  only  elements 
for  examination.  Metaphysicians,  therefore, 
have  labored  at  the  problem  for  centuries, 

36 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS     OF     MIND 

but  without  coming  to  any  agreement,  one 
chief  reason  for  their  failure  being  that  in 
their  methods  of  investigation  they  have  had 
to  rely  upon  introspection.  But  the  difficulty 
with  introspection  is  that  it  is  like  a  man  try- 
ing to  lift  himself  by  his  own  boot  straps. 
As  our  mental  processes  both  begin  and  end 
within  ourselves,  they  ofifer  little  which  is  ob- 
jective for  us  to  go  by.  We  need  instead 
some  external  fulcrum  to  draw  upon  for  sat- 
isfactory inferences. 

Such  a  fulcrum  seems  at  last  to  be  prom- 
ised to  us  by  modem  discoveries  connected 
with  the  brain  itself  in  its  relations  as  an  or- 
ganism to  certain  definite  mental  functions. 
This  was  not  possible  so  long  as  the  brain 
was  regarded  as  a  single  organ  working  as 
a  unit,  with  the  same  relations  in  all  its  parts 
to  consciousness  and  thought  that  the  air  cells 
wherever  located  in  the  lungs  bear  to  res- 
piration. Looked  at  thus,  the  physiologist 
with  the  brain  before  him  was  even  worse  off 
than  the  metaphysician,  for  nothing  could  be 
37 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

more  undemonstrative  to  mere  inspection 
than  healthy  brain  matter.  Physiologists, 
therefore,  were  obliged  to  investigate  the 
brain,  bit  by  bit,  to  find  whether  some  parts 
of  it  were  more  connected  with  certain  psy- 
chical functions  than  others.  After  the  most 
extensive  experiments  were  made  on  the 
brains  of  living  animals,  certain  impor- 
tant facts  were  demonstrated  which  have 
most  direct  bearings  on  the  problem.  More- 
over, these  experimental  deductions  have 
been  further  confirmed  by  observations  of  the 
effects  of  local  brain  damage  caused  in  man 
by  injuries  or  disease.  By  these  means  it  is 
now  proven  that  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain 
surface  is  specially  arranged  to  subserve  cer- 
tain specific  psychical  functions  only  in  cer- 
tain localities  in  its  substance.  It  is  not  the 
whole  brain  which  sees  or  hears,  but  only  par- 
ticular limited  areas  to  which  the  conscious- 
ness of  sight  and  of  hearing  respectively  are 
confined.  Likewise  the  voluntary  movements 
of  each  group  of  muscles  in  the  body  have 
38 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS     OF     MIND 

been  found  to  proceed  from  certain  well- 
defined  starting  points  on  the  brain  surface, 
and  these  are  so  well  demonstrated  that  the 
surgeon  often  knows,  by  noting  what  muscles 
are  implicated,  just  where  to  open  the  skull 
with  his  trephine  so  as  to  find  the  lesion  or 
injury  in  the  brain. 

On  these  grounds  the  inference  seems  prob- 
able that  every  special  psychical  function  is 
subserved  by  its  own  special  seat  in  the  mate- 
rial organ  of  the  mind.  Hence,  by  these  dis- 
coveries we  do  seem  to  have  come  into  pos- 
session of  really  objective  facts  where  before 
everything  was  subjective;  because  nothing 
could  partake  more  of  the  nature  of  an  ob- 
jective fact  than  the  identification  of  an  area 
of  brain  matter  with  a  given  brain  function, 
by  that  function  becoming  invariably  im- 
paired according  as  its  brain  place  is  dam- 
aged. 

We  propose,  therefore,  to  discuss  in  the 
following  pages  the  bearing  which  these  now 
demonstrated  relations  of  brain  structure  to 
39 


\ 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

mental  operations  have  upon  the  two  oppo- 
site views  above  stated  of  the  relations  of  the 
brain  to  the  mind. 

Fortunately  for  the  general  reader,  the  es- 
sential facts  bearing  upon  our  present  dis- 
cussion can  be  readily  demonstrated  and 
easily  understood.  All  are  agreed  that  as  far 
as  the  brain  is  concerned,  the  gray  matter  of 
the  brain  surface,  technically  called  the  cor- 
tex, is  the  ultimate  seat  of  all  processes  con- 
nected with  sensation  and  thought.  This 
gray  matter  consists  of  a  continuous  layer, 
whose  average  thickness  is  from  one-twelfth 
to  one-eighth  of  an  inch,  of  a  soft  material  of 
a  very  complex  structure,  in  which  are  im- 
bedded immense  numbers  of  little  bodies, 
of  various  shapes  and  sizes,  unfortunately 
called  "cells,"  for  they  are  not  hollow.  Be- 
tween these  cells  ramifies  a  network  of  in- 
numerable fine  gray  fibers.  To  save  space 
this  layer  of  gray  matter  is  everywhere 
folded  upon  itself,  as  one  would  crumple  up 
a  handkerchief  in  his  hand,  so  that  the  sur- 
40 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS    OF     MIND 

face  of  the  brain  presents  a  number  of  fur- 
rows or  creases  between  the  folds.  The  chief 
furrows,  however,  are  quite  definite  in  their 
location,  so  that  the  main  folds  are  called 
lobes,  and  the  smaller  ones  convolutions,  and 
these  in  turn  serve  to  map  out  the  different 
regions  of  the  brain  surface  which  are  then 
named  accordingly. 

Underneath  and  within  the  gray  layer,  and 
constituting  the  greater  part  of  the  brain 
mass,  is  the  white  matter,  which  consists  of 
bundles  of  gray  fibers  contained  within 
sheaths  of  apparently  an  insulating  material 
and  white  in  color.  Some  gray  fibers,  how- 
ever, have  no  coating.  The  function  of  a 
nerve  fiber  is  wholly  that  of  a  conductor  to 
and  from  the  gray  matter.  On  that  account 
the  white  matter  is  not,  like  the  gray  matter 
of  the  surface,  the  primary  seat  of  any  men- 
tal power,  though  in  many  instances  these 
fibers  form  important  links  between  the  vari- 
ous cortical  areas  which  seem  to  promote 
associated  actions  between  them. 
41 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

Here,  therefore,  in  the  gray  matter  of  the 
surface  of  the  brain  we  have  a  material  sub- 
stance which  is  the  definite  seat  of  the  con- 
scious mind.  For,  as  just  stated,  if  one  par- 
ticular area  of  this  gray  layer  be  destroyed, 
sight  is  totally  lost,  though  the  eye  itself  in 
all  its  parts,  with  the  nervous  tract  leading 
therefrom  to  the  brain,  be  wholly  intact.  If 
another  particular  cortical  area  is  similarly 
injured,  hearing  is  abolished,  though  the  ear 
with  all  its  apparatus  be  uninjured.  The  con- 
sciousness of  sight  or  of  hearing,  therefore, 
is  neither  in  the  eye  nor  ear  respectively,  but 
in  these  special  localities  on  the  brain  sur- 
face. To  use  the  phrase  of  an  old  anatomist, 
the  gray  matter  is  the  animal.  Regarded 
thus,  this  form  of  matter  is  the  most  interest- 
ing and  important  substance  in  the  world,  for 
it  is  the  only  matter  which  we  know  of  that 
is  directly  associated  with  mind. 

There  can  be  no  question  also  that  upon 
the  integrity  of  this  gray  matter  depends 
the  integrity  of  all  mental  processes,  for 
42 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS    OF     MIND 

these  can  be  proportionately  perverted  by 
anything  which  interferes  with  the  physical 
conditions  of  the  gray  tissue,  or  by  agents 
which  derange  its  working.  Thus  mechani- 
cal injuries  of  the  brain  in  man  often  have 
been  followed  by  peculiar  mental  disorders, 
sometimes  including  change  in  disposition 
or  in  moral  character. 

Thfe  most  striking  illustrations  of  this  kind, 
however,  and  which  can  be  produced  at  will, 
are  furnished  by  the  action  of  brain  poisons. 
In  fact  a  curiously  interesting  treatise  might 
be  written  with  the  title  of  the  '  *  Metaphysics 
jf  a  Drug  Store."  Thus,  opium  powerfully 
stimulates  those  mental  processes  which  are 
related  to  the  imagination,  so  that  the  opium 
taker  becomes  intensely  interested  in  his  own 
trains  of  suggested  ideas.  He  is  there- 
fore silent  and  solitary,  and  thus  contrasts 
with  the  alcohol  taker,  who  has  his  feel- 
ings and  emotions  so  stimulated  by  that 
poison  that  he  would  fain  share  them  with 
other  persons,  and  becomes  both  familiar 
43 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

and  talkative.  One  of  the  most  singular 
in  its  effects  on  the  mind  is  haschish  or  In- 
dian hemp.  When  fully  under  its  influence, 
the  haschish  smoker  can  be  made  to  entertain 
a  most  vivid  sense  of  the  objective  reality  of 
any  suggestion  which  is  made  to  his  fancy. 
I  once  knew  a  party  of  Arabs  who,  while  all 
drunk  together  with  this  drug,  came  to  an 
opening  in  an  over-arched  street  in  an  Ori- 
ental town  through  which  the  moonlight 
streamed  upon  the  pavement.  The  leader  of 
the  party  took  the  moonlight  for  a  pool  of 
water  and  forthwith  drew  up  his  trousers  to 
wade  carefully  through  it,  and  was  followed 
by  all  the  rest  of  them  doing  the  same  thing. 
Hence,  by  merely  introducing  certain  defi- 
nite substances  into  the  blood  stream,  as  it 
rapidly  courses  through  the  brain  from  its 
four  great  arteries,  we  can  produce  well-de- 
fined mental  processes  characteristic  of  the 
operations  of  these  agents;  or,  in  other 
words,  sensations,  feelings  and  ideas  specifi- 
cally generated  by  these  wholly  material 
44 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS     OF     MIND 

things.  In  time  also  the  persistent  use  of 
these  agents  seems  to  alter  the  personality 
itself.  Thus,  a  confirmed  drunkard  finally 
becomes  more  unlike  his  former  self  than  an 
average  European  differs  from  an  average 
Asiatic. 

At  first  sight  such  facts  as  these  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  brain  and  mind  are  one. 
Change  the  state  of  the  brain,  and  the  thinker 
is  changed  accordingly.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  previous  to  the  progress  of 
discovery  within  the  last  twenty-five  years,  it 
appeared  as  if  nothing  could  be  postulated 
about  mental  phenomena  apart  from  the  ma- 
terial condition  of  the  mind's  organ.  The 
^olian  harp  theory  that  sensation  and 
thought  are  the  products  of  vibrations 
through  a  specially  arranged  mechanism, 
seemed  to  correspond  most  naturally  with 
the  facts. 

But  unfortunately  for  this  conclusion,  all 
the  facts  adduced  in  its  support  can  be  ad- 
duced just  as  conclusively  in  support  of  the 
45 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

opposite  theory  of  the  brain  being  but  the  in- 
strument of  the  thinker,  as  the  violin  is  the 
instrument  of  the  musician 'who  plays  upon 
it.  The  most  skillful  violinist  would  draw 
forth  nothing  but  crazy  sounds  from  his  in- 
strument if  its  cords  were  smeared  with 
grease  instead  of  with  rosin,  and  every  men- 
tal disorder  from  delirium  to  coma  can  be 
paralleled  by  corresponding  musical  de- 
rangements due  to  purely  structural  condi- 
tions in  the  violin  itself,  and  not  at  all  in  the 
performer.  It  then  would  be  from  no  fault 
of  his,  but  solely  from  conditions  in  his  in- 
strument that  every  sound  which  he  can  get 
out  of  it  is  faulty.  Indeed,  the  rightful  direc- 
tor of  thought  may  often  appear  to  be  striv- 
ing to  regulate  the  brain  of  a  dnmkard,  just 
as  a  musician  would  deal  with  a  disordered 
instrument;  and  still  more  strikingly  do  we 
see  something  akin  to  this  in  certain  states 
of  insanity. 

We  are  thus  left  by  these  considerations 
just  where  we  were  before;  and  hence  we 
46 


THE     PHYSICAL     BASIS    OF    MIND 

must  go  further  and  deeper  than  physical 
changes  in  brain  matter  can  take  us  to  arrive 
at  satisfactory  conceptions  of  the  true  rela- 
tions of  the  brain  to  the  mind. 


CHAPTER  III 

BBAIN   WEIGHT  AND   MENTAL,   FACULTY 

What  we  have  arrived  at  so  far  is  that  the 
gray  matter  is  the  physical  basis  of  the  mind. 
No  one  now  disputes  this.  The  eye  does  not 
see  any  more  than  an  opera  glass  sees.  It 
is  one  place  only  in  the  gray  cortex  which 
actually  sees.  And  as  with  the  consciousness 
of  sight,  so  doubtless  the  seat  of  every  other 
special  form  of  mind  consciousness  is  some- 
where in  this  mysterious  layer.  But  how  far 
does  this  take  us? 

Not  very  far,  because  if  we  hence  should 
infer  that  consciousness  in  all  its  forms  of 
sensation,  feeling,  perception,  thought,  etc., 
depended  wholly  on  the  existence  of  so  much 
gray  matter,  we  should  soon  encounter  a 
series  of  material,  i.  e.,  physical,  facts  and 
conditions  which,  if  they  did  not  actually  con- 


WEIGHT    OF    BRAIN 

tradici  such  inferences,  would  at  least  seri- 
ously modify  them. 

To  begin  with  the  simplest  as  well  as  the 
most  physical  facts.  In  all  animals  there  is 
a  close  correspondence  between  the  degree  of 
development  of  any  organ  and  its  functional 
power  or  activity.  A  powerful  arm  implies 
a  big  arm,  or  at  least  not  an  undersized  one. 
Is  a  powerful  brain  likewise  a  big  brain,  or 
at  least  not  an  undersized  brain?  In  other 
words,  does  the  actual  size  of  brain  in  man 
bear  any  direct  relation  to  mental  capacity? 
This  question  may  be  answered  in  the  affirm- 
ative, only,  however,  with  so  many  qualifica- 
tions that  it  then  becomes  by  itself  of  little 
account  in  our  discussion.  Thus  the  brains 
of  most  idiots  and  of  half-witted  persons  are 
usually  smaller  and  weigh  less  than  the  aver- 
age of  normal  brains,  while  many  men  dis- 
tinguished for  their  mental  powers  have  had 
large  and  heavy  brains.  But  the  exceptions 
are  very  numerous  both  ways.  Thus,  assum- 
ing the  average  weight  of  normal  European 
49 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

brains  among  men  to  be  49.5  ounces,  we  have 
the  following  list  of  the  brain  weights  of  dis- 
tinguished men  given  by  Prof.  John  Mar, 
shall  :i 

Abercrombie 64.7 

Lord  Campbell 56.7 

Webster 55.5 

Chalmers 54.8 

De  Momy 54 

Whewell 51.2 

Grote 52 

Tiedmann 47.4 

Hansemann 45.4 

Helmholtz  45 

Dollmger   37.7 

But  just  such  variations  are  found  among 
people  in  general  not  at  all  distinguished. 
Even  among  paupers,  in  a  large  series  of 
observations  cited  by  Professor  Marshall, 
thirteen  brains  among  nine  hundred  were 
found  to  weigh   above  sixty  ounces.     The 

>Jour.  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  1892-1893,  vol.  xxvii* 
pp.  21-65. 

50 


WEIGHT    OF    BRAIN 

heaviest,  perfectly  healthy  brain  was  that  of 
a  mechanic,  which  weighed  just  above 
seventy  ounces. 

In  the  Journal  of  the  Biometrical  Society, 
June,  1905,1  p^of  Karl  Pearson,  F.E.S.,  and 
Dr.  Eaymond  Pearl  give  the  results  of  an 
analysis  of  2,100  adult  male  and  1,034  adult 
female  brain  weights,  belonging  to  five 
races — Swedish,  Bavarian,  Hessian,  Bohem- 
ian and  English — with  the  conclusion  that 
*'  There  is  no  evidence  that  brain  weight  is 
sensibly  correlated  with  intellectual  ability. 
Of  the  five  races  investigated  by  the  bio- 
metricians,  the  English  have  the  smallest 
mean  brain  weight.  The  mean  of  the  adult 
Englishman  is  27  grams  less  than  the  Bavar- 
ian mean,  57  grams  less  than  the  Hessian 
mean,  65  grams  less  than  the  Swedish  mean, 
and  120  grams  less  than  the  Bohemian 
mean." 

On  the  other  hand,  brain  bulk  as  such 
varies  according  to  racial  peculiarities,  with 

»  Nature,  Dec.  28, 1905,  p.  200. 

51 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

little  or  no  reference  to  mental  faculty.  Thus 
the  ancient  Peruvians,  who  founded  the  em- 
pire of  the  Incas,  must  be  regarded  as  an  in- 
tellectual people,  but  they  were  remarkable 
both  for  the  small  size  of  their  skulls  and  for 
brains  which  were  on  an  average  no  larger 
than  those  of  many  idiots. 

One  of  the  latest  discussions  on  this  sub- 
ject is  by  Prof.  David  Hansemann,^  who  made 
a  most  careful  examination  of  the  brain  of 
the  most  remarkable  man  in  modem  times 
for  pure  intellectual  powers,  Hermann  von 
Helmholtz.  Prof.  Hansemann  was  much  dis- 
appointed to  find  that  Helmholtz 's  brain 
weighed  barely  45  ounces.  But  the  brain  of 
Dr.  Dollinger,  the  eminent  historian,  weighed 
only  37.7  ounces.  He  concludes  his  elaborate 
paper  on  this  subject  with  the  remark,  that 
all  investigators  agree  that  the  weight  of 
the  brain  bears  no  relation  to  the  mental 
capacity    of    man.     Likewise    the    external 

*  Ueber  das  Gehim  von  Hermann  von  Helmholtz  von  Pro- 
fessor David  Hansemann.  Zeitschrift  fiir  Psychologie  und 
Physiologic  der  Sinnesorgane,  20.  Band.     Leipzig,  1899 

52 


WEIGHT    OF    BRAIN 

measure  of  the  head  is  of  no  account  what- 
ever. No  man's  intellect  can  be  judged  by 
the  size  of  his  hat.  Johannes  Muller's  had 
the  large  circumference  of  614  millimetres, 
Eichard  Wagner's  600  millimetres,  but  Napo- 
leon's was  only  564  and  Darwin's  563  milli- 
metres. 

Therefore  if  any  conclusions  can  be  drawn 
from  these  considerations  it  would  seem  as 
if  brain  organization  was  more  important 
than  mere  size.  Hence  it  follows  that  neither 
of  our  two  opposing  theories  is  helped  by 
these  anatomical  facts.  A  gifted  violinist 
would  greatly  prefer  to  play  upon  a  violin 
of  standard  make,  however  expensive  it  was, 
than  appear  before  a  critical  audience  with 
the  cheap  product  of  a  village  artificer.  No 
one  can  doubt  that  an  originally  well-organ- 
ized brain  is  a  good  thing  to  have,  but  that 
does  not  affect  the  real  point  at  issue,  which 
is,  whether  the  best-organized  brain,  or  for 
that  matter  any  other  brain,  can  be  made  to 
think  without  a  thinker. 
53 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

"We  have,  therefore,  again  to  go  further 
into  the  subject  than  the  mere  size  of  the 
brain  in  man  will  carry  us.  But  our  very 
next  step  brings  us  to  an  anatomical  fact  of 
primary  importance,  which  seems  to  make 
our  previous  discussion  about  the  bulk  of 
brain  matter  quite  superfluous.  To  some, 
indeed,  this  anatomical  fact  appears  to  dis- 
pose of  the  ^olian  harp  theory  altogether, 
as  far  as  a  physical  basis  for  it  is  concerned. 
So  sweeping  in  reality  are  the  conclusions 
which  follow  upon  this  single  material  fac- 
tor in  the  problem  that  it  is  well  to  pause  and 
take  our  bearings  on  all  sides  to  be  sure  of 
the  full  import  of  its  significance. 

The  question  all  along  has  been  this.  As 
all  are  agreed  that  the  gray  matter  is  the 
material  seat  of  thought,  etc.,  is  it  also  the 
source  of  thought!  The  dictum  of  Bory  St. 
Vincent,  Cabanis,  Karl  Vogt  and  others,  was 
that  the  brain  secretes  thought  just  as  the 
liver  secretes  bile.  As  a  statement  this  is 
intelligible  enough,  and  all  writers  who  ad- 

54 


WEIGHT    OF    BRAIN 

vocate  what  we  have  represented  as  the 
jEolian  harp  theory  of  the  relation  of  the 
brain  to  the  mind  will  be  found  on  examina- 
tion to  hold  essentially  the  same  opinion, 
however  they  may  differ  in  their  statement 
of  details.  Thought,  feeling,  volition,  etc., 
are,  on  the  last  analysis,  according  to  any 
such  view,  the  products  of  the  material  or- 
ganization of  the  gray  matter  as  it  responds 
to  its  appropriate  specific  stimuli. 

Now  it  is  evident  that  such  a  premise  in- 
volves one  inevitable  conclusion,  namely,  that 
the  more  gray  matter  you  have  the  better 
thought,  etc.,  you  will  have.  If  this  be 
granted  it  becomes  then  a  question  of  quanti- 
tative gray  matter,  and  if,  in  accordance  with 
modem  conceptions,  thought  be  conceived 
of  as  a  form  of  energy  stored  up  by  the  gray 
matter,  then  the  amount  of  this  energy  liber- 
ated will  be  proportionate  to  the  quantity  of 
the  specific  substance  which  stores  it  up.  But 
even  on  this  hypothesis,  mere  quantity  of  the 
mind  generating  material  is  not  enough.  An- 
55 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

other  factor  has  to  be  taken  fully  into  ac- 
count,  namely,  how  it  is  organized,  because 
it  is  only  by  its  special  organization  that  one 
portion  of  this  gray  matter  is  endowed  with 
the  faculty  of  sight,  and  another  in  a  differ- 
ent place  does  not  see  but  hear,  and  so  on  for 
each  special  sense.  But  for  the  present  we 
may  let  this  inconvenient  factor  pass,  and  re- 
vert to  the  original  proposition,  that  how- 
ever complex  the  organizing  be,  it  is  the  gray 
matter  which  is  organized,  and  hence  the 
more  there  be  of  this  cerebral  stuff,  the  more, 
correspondingly,  will  its  various  mental 
products  be. 

But  the  anatomical  fact  which  wholly  dis- 
poses of  this  theory  is  that  we,  like  most 
people,  and  particularly  these  reasoners,  are 
quite  inaccurate  when  we  use  the  word 
*  *  brain. '  *  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  brain 
in  a  human  being.  He  always  has  two  brains, 
and  never  one  brain,  just  as  he  has  two  eyes 
and  two  ears.  And  these  two  brains  are  just 
as  perfectly  matched  and  duplicates  of  each 
56 


WEIGHT    OF    BRAIN 

other  in  all  their  paiis  as  his  two  eyes  and 
his  two  ears  are. 

Therefore  if  the  quantity  of  gray  matter 
is  the  fact  for  us  to  found  our  superstructure 
upon,  one-half  of  this  matter  being  in  the 
right  brain  and  the  other  half  in  the  left 
brain,  it  follows  that  if  one  of  the  two  brains 
be  rendered  useless  by  any  chance,  either 
half  the  mind,  or  half  of  the  mental  capacity 
will  be  gone.    Is  that  so? 

Instead  of  being  so,  it  has  been  abundantly 
demonstrated  that  one  of  the  two  brains  can 
do  all  the  thinking  necessary  for  the  pur- 
poses of  life.  No  addition  of  mental  power, 
nor  of  mental  endowment  is  secured  by  our 
having  two  brains,  any  more  than  the  faculty 
of  sight  is  increased  in  us  by  our  having  two 
eyes.  This,  however,  is  only  in  accordance, 
as  we  shall  see,  with  the  general  law  of  all 
pair  organs  in  the  body,  whose  existence  in 
pairs  is  for  quite  other  reasons  than  for  in- 
crease in  function.  It  is  difficult,  therefore, 
to  see  why  our  paired  brains  should  consti- 
57 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

tute  an  exception  to  this  law;  and  that  they 
do  not  do  so  in  fact  we  shall  show  by  ana- 
tomical evidence  of  the  most  convincing  kind. 
We  may  observe  here  in  passing  that  this 
pairing  of  the  mind's  organ  is  a  very  per- 
plexing problem  to  some  reasoners.  As  one 
authority^  remarks,  **  We  are  completely 
in  the  dark  as  to  the  reason  why  we 
possess  two  hemispheres."  This  difficulty 
arises  mainly  from  certain  assumptions 
about  the  relations  of  thought  to  matter, 
while  the  constant  use  of  the  term  brain  un- 
consciously leads  to  the  conception  of  a 
single  organ  as  the  source  of  thought,  just 
as  the  liver  is  the  only  source  of  bile.  It  is, 
in  fact,  an  illustration  of  the  dominance  of 
this  conception  that  this  identical  compari- 
son of  the  brain  to  the  liver  occurs  so  often 
among  writers  of  this  school.  But  though  we 
may  correctly  speak  of  the  eye  and  of  the 
ear  in  the  singular,  so  long  as  we  are  talking 
of  the  function  itself — of  sight  or  of  hearing, 

*  Sir  Michael  Foster,  Physiology,  p.  872, 5th  Edition. 

58 


WEIGHT    OF    BRAIN 

such  language  is  no  longer  correct  when  we 
speak  of  them  in  the  plural,  for  we  then  are 
only  referring  to  them  as  the  instruments  of 
sight  or  of  hearing.  For  instruments,  and 
nothing  but  instruments,  these  pair  organs 
certainly  are.  Though  without  the  eye  there 
would  be  no  sight,  and  without  the  ear  no 
hearing,  yet  the  eye  is  no  more  the  seat  or 
source  of  sight  than  is  a  telescope  or  a  micro- 
scope. Whether,  therefore,  our  two  per- 
fectly symmetrical  brains  are  likewise  not 
the  sources,  but  rather  the  instruments,  of 
thought,  we  will  now  proceed  to  examine. 


59 


CHAPTER   IV 

SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  BRAIN  BEING  A  DOUBLE  OR 
PAIR  ORGAN 

Oxm  brains  consist  of  two  perfectly  matched 
organs  technically  called  the  right  and  left 
hemispheres.  As  regards  their  gray  matter, 
they  correspond  furrow  for  furrow,  lobe  for 
lobe,  and  convolution  for  convolution.  Now 
with  the  partial  exception  of  the  hands  and 
feet,  the  salient  fact  about  other  pair  organs 
in  the  body  is  this:  That  either  one  of  the 
pair  can  do  the  whole  business  of  both  if 
necessary.  It  is  not  one  of  the  two  eyes 
which  sees  red  while  the  other  sees  green; 
jior,  if  a  man  knows  the  two  languages,  does 
one  ear  hear  only  English  and  the  other  only 
German.  What  one  eye  sees,  the  other  sees, 
>o  that  if  a  man  should  lose  one  eye,  with  the 


THE   BRAIN   A   PAIR   ORGAN 

remaining  eye  he  might  become  either  an 
astronomer  or  a  microscopist.  Some  per- 
sons have  been  known  to  live  for  many  years 
with  only  one  lung  to  breathe  with.  I  once 
was  called  in  consultation  to  see  a  strong 
workingman  who  had  lived  for  thirteen  years 
wholly  unaware  that  he  had  only  one  kidney, 
the  other  having  been  destroyed  by  a  stone 
becoming  impacted  in  the  tube  leading  from 
it,  when  he  had  an  attack  of  kidney  colic.  It 
was  a  similar  mishap  in  the  tube  of  the  re- 
maining kidney  which  first  showed  what  his 
defect  was.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the 
chief  reasons  why  we  have  pair  organs  is, 
first,  for  convenience,  due  to  the  body  itself 
being  generally  two-sided,  right  and  left; 
and,  secondly,  to  insure  against  emergencies, 
just  as  a  man  will  provide  himself  with  two 
keys  for  the  same  lock,  lest  he  lose  one. 

As  regards  our  brains,  however,  there  is 
one  exception  to  this  rule  about  pair  organs, 
in  a  division  of  labor  between  the  two  hemi- 
spheres, in  respect  of  the  control  of  those 
61 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

muscular  movements  which  are  of  a  voluntary 
character,  the  centers  of  those  governing  the 
right  half  of  the  body  occupying  a  tract  in  the 
gray  cortex  of  the  left  brain,  while  those  of 
the  left  half  of  the  body  are  correspondingly 
located  in  the  right  hemisphere.  The  most 
probable  explanation  of  this  arrangement  is 
that  it  insures  a  more  perfect  balance  be- 
tween the  two  sides  of  the  body  in  its  muscu- 
lar movements.  Thus  the  two  eyes  need  to 
move  in  most  perfect  harmony,  and  on  that 
account  there  are  special  crossings  of  nerve 
fibers  from  side  to  side  to  secure  this  unity 
of  action.  But  with  respect  to  thought  itself 
the  above  mentioned  law  about  pair  organs 
holds  perfectly. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  shown  by  post-mor- 
tem examinations  that  persons  have  lived  for 
years  with  only  one  hemisphere  in  working 
order,  the  other  having  been  virtually  de- 
stroyed by  disease ;  but  with  the  exception  of 
parts  in  one-half  of  their  bodies  being  para- 
lyzed for  voluntary  movements,  such  as  those 
62 


THE    BRAIN    A   PAIR   ORGAN 

of  the  arms  and  legs,  they  have  thought  and 
acted  and  transacted  business  as  well  with 
one-half  of  the  gray  matter  with  which  they 
started  in  life,  i.  e.,  with  only  one  hemisphere, 
as  others  are  able  to  use  one  eye  for  all  pur- 
poses after  losing  its  mate. 

Of  many  such  instances  we  need  cite  only 
that  of  a  man  who  for  several  years  was 
under  the  observation  of  an  expert  neurolo- 
gist, who  published  a  history  of  his  case  with 
a  full  description  of  the  conditions  found  in 
his  brain  after  death.^ 

The  patient  had  always  been  strong 
and  well,  and  was  forty-seven  years  of  age, 
when  he  awoke  one  morning  with  his  whole 
left  side  numb  and  paralyzed.  He  remained 
thus  paralyzed  for  ten  years  till  he  died,  but 
meantime  his  speech  was  perfectly  normal, 
his  reading  good  and  his  memory  unaffected. 
He  gave  no  sign  of  mental  weakness,  but  was 
always  intelligent,  patient,  cheerful  and  par- 
ticularly good   in   attention.     He   read  the 

*  Dr.  Pearce  Bailey,  Am.  Jour.  Med.  Sciences,  March,  1889 

63 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

papers  constantly,  and  liked  to  talk  politics. 
He  bore  his  disability  bravely,  and  was 
neither  depressed,  emotional,  irritable  nor 
apathetic.  At  the  autopsy  a  large  cyst,  full 
of  fluid,  occupied  the  anterior  part  of  the 
right  hemisphere,  with  the  whole  tissue  dis- 
organized and  without  any  remains  of  gray 
matter,  while  the  posterior  half  of  the  hemi- 
sphere was  everywhere  atrophied.  Micro- 
scopical examination  of  the  tissues  showed 
the  same  destruction  of  the  nerve  elements. 
Dr.  Bailey  concludes  with  saying:  '*  Put- 
ting all  together  the  man  (during  life)  mani- 
fested nothing  to  indicate  that  the  power  of 
operations  of  his  mind  had  been  affected,  and 
yet  after  death  the  whole  of  one  hemisphere 
was  found  to  be  greatly  lessened  in  size,  and 
impoverished  in  cellular  constituents,  and  the 
frontal  lobes  which  some  regard  as  the  seat 
of  the  highest  cerebral  functions  were  almost 
totally  annihilated  on  one  side." 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  one  anatomical 
fact  which  might  give  color  to  the  supposi- 

64 


THE    BRAIN    A    PAIR    ORGAN 

tion  that  our  two  brains  are  constructed  to 
operate  virtually  as  one  organ.  At  the  bot- 
tom of  the  cleft  separating  the  two  hemi- 
spheres there  is  a  large  bridge  named  the 
corpus  callosum,  four  inches  in  length,  and 
which  is  made  up  of  bundles  of  white  fibers 
which  pass  from  one  brain  to  the  other.  It 
has  been  supposed  that  the  function  of  this 
commissure,  as  it  is  called,  is  to  make  the 
various  brain  centers  in  the  two  hemispheres 
work  together,  as  some  of  its  fibers  have  been 
traced  from  certain  areas  of  the  cortex  down 
to  this  bridge  and  across  it  to  corresponding 
areas  in  the  opposite  brain.  This  surmise 
was  apparently  strengthened  by  the  frequent 
absence,  or  only  partial  development,  of  this 
commissure  in  the  brains  of  idiots  or  of  feeble 
minded  subjects.  But  the  progress  of  re- 
search has  not  confirmed  the  theory  that  the 
two  hemispheres  are  functionally  united  by 
this  connecting  bridge.  For  in  cases  of  men- 
tally defective  subjects,  where  the  corpus 
callosmn  was  found  wanting,  other  organic 

65 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

abnormalities  were  also  invariably  found 
which  had  to  be  taken  into  account  as  well. 
Meantime  numerous  reports  have  been  pub- 
lished of  post-mortem  examinations  per- 
formed by  distinguished  neurologists  on  per- 
sons who  during  life  showed  no  signs  of  men- 
tal defect,  and  yet  in  whom  there  was  no 
corpus  callosum  between  the  two  hemi- 
spheres. In  each  of  these  subjects  also  there 
was  no  other  abnormality  present  in  the 
brain.  Most  of  these  cases  were  only  acci- 
dentally discovered  in  the  bodies  of  persona 
dying  from  ordinary  diseases,  because  noth- 
ing in  their  antecedent  history  suggested  the 
existence  of  their  anatomical  peculiarity. 
Thus  Eichler  reports  the  case  of  a  man  forty- 
three  years  of  age,  *'  a  laborer  who  during 
life  had  showed  no  mental  peculiarities,  but 
was  a  diligent,  capable  workman,  a  good  hus- 
band,  and  in  every  respect  sober,  quiet  and 
well-behaved,  and  could  read  and  write, ' '  but 
in  whom  the  corpus  callosum  was  entirely 
absent.    The  eminent  neurologist,  Professor 

66 


THE    BRAIN    A    PAIR    ORGAN 

Erb,  in  reporting  two  similar  cases,  remarks 
that  '*  when  the  brain  is  otherwise  well-de- 
veloped, with  absence  of  the  corpus  callosum, 
there  may  be  no  disturbance  of  motility,  co- 
ordination, general  or  special  sensibility,  re- 
flexes, speech  or  intelligence."  Considering 
the  rarity  of  autopsies  in  which  careful  ex- 
aminations of  the  brain  are  made,  such  cases 
may  be  quite  common  in  the  general  popula- 
tion without  anything  in  life  betrajdng  their 
existence.  Undoubtedly  this  connection  be- 
tween the  two  brains  may  be  of  use  in  pro- 
viding against  some  accidents  to  either  of  the 
cerebral  pairs,  but  these  instances  of  its  ab- 
sence only  serve  to  prove  that  for  perform- 
ing the  ordinary  functions  of  mental  life,  the 
two  hemispheres  are  wholly  independent  of 
each  other.  Indeed,  one  in\estigator  of  this 
subject  remarks  that  the  problem  of  the  use 
of  the  corpus  callosum  is  still  unsolved,  as  its 
absence  appears  to  be  so  little  missed.^ 

*  This  subject  of  absence  of  the  corpus  callosum  is  fully 
treated  in  an  article  by  the  well-known  brain  anatomist,  Prot 
Alex,  Bruce,  in  Brain,  1889,  pp.  171-9. 

67 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

The  inference  from  these  facts  is  perfectly 
obvious.  If  one-half  of  the  total  gray  matter 
of  our  brains  is  distributed  in  one  hemi- 
sphere, and  the  other  half  in  the  second  hemi- 
sphere, it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  doubling, 
or  even  increasing  our  mental  capacity.  We 
might  lose  one-half  of  our  gray  matter,  pro- 
vided the  loss  is  only  on  one  side  and  the 
other  side  remains  whole,  without  losing  a 
single  idea  thereby.  In  other  words,  we 
might  reason,  argue,  calculate,  love  or  hate, 
like  or  dislike,  or,  in  short,  be  altogether  our- 
selves mentally  with  only  one-half  of  our 
gray  matter  left  to  us.  We,  therefore,  as  per- 
sons, do  not  depend  for  our  personality  upon 
the  number  of  ounces  of  gray  matter  which 
our  cranial  cavity  contains,  but  rather  on  the 
fact  whether  the  gray  matter  of  one  of  our 
hemispheres  be  in  good  condition  or  not. 
If  it  is,  then  the  gray  matter  of  the  other 
hemisphere  is  not  needed  by  us  for  the  pur- 
pose of  thinking.  Our  gray  matter  as  such 
is  halved,  but  we  ourselves  are  not  only  not 

68 


THE    BRAIN    A   PAIR    ORGAN 

halved  into  two  half  selves  by  this  bilateral 
distribution,  but  we  remain  the  same  men- 
tal unit  as  ever  if  only  we  can  keep  intact 
that  one  of  the  two  hemispheres  which,  as  we 
will  see  later,  is  the  sole  seat  of  thought. 

These  undoubted  facts,  therefore,  lead  to 
just  as  undoubted  a  conclusion,  namely,  that 
everything  involved  in  our  conscious  person- 
ality, while  related  to  gray  matter,  is  only 
related  to,  but  not  originated  by,  gray  mat- 
ter ;  for  if  it  were  originated  by  gray  matter, 
then  both  hemispheres  would  be  equally 
necessary  to  our  complete  personality.  If  a 
stream  of  water  comes  from  two  equal 
sources,  the  drying  up  of  one  stream  will 
leave  only  half  the  quantity  of  water  run- 
ning ;  and  just  so  must  the  stream  of  thought 
fall  off  one-half  when  one  hemisphere  is  in- 
jured, if  it  originates  in  the  two  perfectly 
equal  hemispheres.  Or,  to  put  it  conversely, 
if  gray  matter  originates  thought,  then  both 
our  hemispheres  must  share  equally  in  pro- 
ducing thought,  for  one  has  just  as  much  graj^ 
69 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

matter  as  the  other,  and  with  just  the  same 
arrangement  and  organization  of  it. 

It  is  these  demonstrated  truths  which,  as 
we  have  remarked  before,  prove  so  embar- 
rassing to  those  who  hold  the  view  that  the 
brain  makes  the  mind.  As  one  hemisphere 
is  quite  enough  for  all  mental  requirements, 
they  cannot  but  regard  on  their  principles 
the  other  hemisphere  as  quite  superfluous. 
So  it  would  be  if  their  principles  were  valid. 
If  thought  is  actually  a  secretion  or  product 
of  the  brain,  as  bile  is  a  secretion  of  the  liver, 
then  the  case  with  the  brain  is  the  same  as 
if  we  had  two  fully  developed  livers  which, 
however,  could  not  be  made  to  produce  more 
bile  than  one  alone  does.  If  our  brains  are 
never  anything  more  than  the  instruments 
of  a  thinker,  the  thinker  might  very  well  have 
two  such  instruments,  and  use  either  one  as 
he  chooses. 

I  have  been  informed  by  watchmakers  that 
they  grow  so  accustomed  to  use  only  one  of 
their  eyes  at  their  work,  that  in  time  they  be- 

70 


THE    BRAIN    A    PAIR    ORGAN 

come  unable  to  use  the  other  eye  for  it.  We 
shall  see  further  on  that  the  human  thinker 
likewise  becomes  so  accustomed  to  use  only 
one  of  his  brain  pair  for  thought  that  it  is 
doubtful  if  he  ever  uses  its  fellow  to  formu- 
late a  single  idea.  With  which  one  of  the  pair 
he  will  choose  to  do  his  thinking  for  life  de- 
pends upon  a  sort  of  accident,  almost  of  the 
nature  of  a  whim,  during  the  days  of  child- 
hood. 

So  far  we  have  been  gradually  approach- 
ing the  central  subject  of  all  our  discussion, 
namely,  the  relation  of  the  brain  to  thought. 
Heretofore  we  have  referred  to  certain  as- 
certained localizations  of  brain  functions  in 
special  places  in  the  brain  cortex.  But  none 
of  these  functions  yet  mentioned  are  neces- 
sarily identical  with  thinking  or  thought.  A 
sensation  like  that  of  sight  is  not  thought, 
however  much  of  thought,  after  its  reception, 
it  may  give  rise  to.  Likewise  a  muscular 
movement  in  response  to  excitation  of  the 
corresponding  area  in  the  cortex  is  not  itself 
71 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

an  act  of  thought,  however  it  may  follow 
upon  thought.  Now  what  is  thinking?  We 
are  precluded  from  asking  metaphysics  to 
answer  this  question  because  our  subject 
deals  only  with  the  relations  of  a  thing  of 
physics,  i.  e.,  brain  substance,  to  mind.  We 
are  called  upon  instead  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion, Are  there  definite  localities  in  the  brain 
substance  which  have  as  close  relations  to 
acts  of  pure  thinking  as  we  have  found  to  be 
the  case  m  connection  with  acts  of  seeing  or 
of  hearing! 

Unlike  the  metaphysician,  who  would  begin 
with  defining  what  thought  and  its  elements 
are,  we  can  only  cite  concrete  examples  of 
thinking  done  by  or  through  an  active  human 
brain.  A  judge  when  he  takes  the  briefs 
submitted  to  him,  and  sits  down  to  write  out 
his  opinion,  is  thinking;  an  orator  making 
ready  his  oration  to  sway  an  assembly,  is 
thinking;  an  author  at  work  on  a  book  is 
thinking;  a  philosopher  pondering  a  subject 
in  philosophy  is  thinking;  and  so  on.    Now 

72 


THE    BRAIN    A    PAIR    ORGAN 

is  this  mental  faculty  of  thinking  so  depend- 
ent upon  the  material  arrangement  of  brain 
gray  matter  in  special  localities  thereof  that, 
just  as  physical  injury  in  the  cortical  sight 
area  may  cause  total  blindness,  so  a  similar 
injury  in  these  special  areas — all  other  brain 
areas  remaining  intact — would  make  it  im- 
possible for  the  judge  to  write  an  opinion, 
the  orator  to  compose  his  speech,  or  the 
author  to  go  on  with  his  book! 

It  is  even  so,  and  the  demonstration  of  how 
and  why  it  is  so  furnishes  more  data  for  the 
correct  estimation  of  the  true  relation  of  the 
brain  to  the  mind  than  any  of  the  facts  which 
we  have  heretofore  been  considering.  It  has 
been  discovered  that  certain  well-defined 
areas  of  the  brain  cortex  minister  as  directly 
to  human  thinking  as  others  do  to  special 
sensations  or  to  movements,  and  when  once 
we  appreciate  their  significance,  we  must 
admit  that  no  greater  discoveries  than  these 
have  been  achieved  in  science.  We  cannot 
ask  to  be  led  higher  than  to  the  very  seats 
73 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

where  thought  becomes  articulate,  and  we 
may  well  pause  when  we  find  ourselves  un- 
mistakably there,  to  ask  what  it  all  means. 
We  have  been  seeking  for  the  material 
whereabouts  of  mind,  if  such  there  be,  and 
hence  the  question  whether  we  can  come 
into  the  physical  neighborhood  of  some  great 
and  purely  mental  faculty  cannot  but  in- 
volve the  solution  of  our  whole  problem.  It 
was  indeed  a  great  step  to  discover  just 
where  a  sensory  stimulus  traveling  from  the 
outside  world  along  a  nerve  fiber  ends,  not 
only  in  a  physical  stopping  place,  but  in  a 
conscious  perception.  We  are,  however,  far 
more  than  conscious  selves  only.  We  are 
thinking  selves,  and  nothing  could  be  more 
important  than  to  investigate  the  physical 
bases  of  the  one  transcendent  human  endow- 
ment which  is  so  associated  with  thought 
itself  that  no  true  thinking  is  possible  in  man 
without  its  exercise. 


74 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    FACULTY    OF    SPEECH 

Before  entering  upon  the  consideration  of 
the  Faculty  of  Speech  and  its  bearing  upon 
the  subject  of  our  discussion  it  is  fitting  to 
note  the  fact  that  no  investigation  of  the  hu- 
man body  itself  affords  the  least  explanation 
why  man  is  man.  There  is  nothing  in  his 
physical  frame  which  truly  separates  him 
from  other  animals,  because  every  member 
and  organ  of  his  body  has  its  counterpart  or 
analogue  in  the  bodies  of  other  animals.  Man 
shares  with  other  mammalia  the  same  kind 
of  lungs  to  breathe  with ;  his  blood  circulates 
through  the  same  kind  of  heart  and  arteries 
and  veins;  he  digests  and  assimilates  his 
food  by  the  same  kind  of  apparatus,  with  all 
its  varieties  of  parts  and  accessories;  his 
secreting  glands,  his  muscles,  his  bones  and, 
75 


BRAIN    AND    7'ERSONALITY 

in  short,  every  other  bodily  thing  in  him  is 
like  unto  theirs.  Also  not  only  the  anatomy, 
but  the  physiology,  that  is,  the  working  of 
every  physical  element  in  man,  is  so  strictly 
in  keeping  with  that  of  other  mammals  that 
much  the  greater  part  of  our  knowledge  of 
human  physiology  is  derived  from  investiga- 
tions into  the  physiology  of  other  animals. 
We  even  deduce  from  experiments  on  them 
how  either  medicines  or  poisons  may  affect 
ourselves. 

But  there  is  one  organ  of  his  body  which 
immediately  suggests  itself  as  necessarily  a 
great  exception  to  all  this.  The  mind  of  man ; 
what  must  its  organ  be?  How  could  the 
human  brain  be  other  than  a  most  excep- 
tional brain  in  the  whole  animal  series? 
This  inference  seemed  so  certain  that  the 
most  diligent  search  was  long  continued  for 
the  physical  counterpart  in  man^s  brain  to 
his  marvelous  intellect.  Nothing,  therefore, 
could  have  been  more  disappointing  than  to 
discover  that  the  brain  of  the  chimpanzee, 
76 


THE     FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

as  far  as  structure  goes,  presents  us  with  not 
only  every  lobe,  but  with  each  convolution 
of  the  human  brain. 

The  chief  facts,  indeed,  respecting  the 
functions  of  the  different  areas  of  our  own 
brain  cortex,  so  far  determined  by  physiolo- 
gists, have  been  deduced  from  experiments 
on  the  brains  of  anthropoid  apes.  All  at- 
tempts to  demonstrate  a  new,  or  superadded, 
or  special  collection  or  arrangement  of  gray 
matter  in  man 's  brain,  which  no  other  animal 
possesses,  have  failed.  Ever  since  Huxley 
showed,  against  Owen,  that  the  human  brain 
has  not  even  one  peculiarity  not  found  in  a 
baboon's  brain,  no  one  expects  that  the  scal- 
pel will  reveal  a  single  physical  explanation 
as  to  why  the  mind  of  a  baboon  and  the  mind 
of  a  physiologist  who  dissects  him  are  so  in- 
finitely apart.  If  the  similarity  of  brain  for- 
mation and  mechanism,  carried  out  in  all  de- 
tails, be  according  to  that  which  is  needed, 
there  would  be  no  reason  why  baboons  could 
not  become  philosophers  or  mathematicians, 
77 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

Man's  body,  therefore,  including  his  brain, 
leaves  man  himself  wholly  unexplained. 
Professor  Huxley  puts  the  subject  thus: 
"As  to  the  convolutions,  the  brains  of  the 
apes  exhibit  every  stage  of  progress,  from 
the  almost  smooth  brain  of  the  marmoset  to 
the  orang  and  chimpanzee,  which  fall  but 
little  below  man.  And  it  is  most  remarkable 
that  as  soon  as  all  the  principal  sulci  [fis- 
sures] appear,  the  pattern  according  to 
which  they  are  arranged  is  identical  with 
that  of  the  corresponding  sulci  of  man.  .  .  . 
So  far  as  cerebral  structure  goes,  therefore, 
it  is  clear  that  man  differs  less  from  the 
chimpanzee  and  orang,  than  these  do  even 
from  the  monkeys,  and  that  the  difference 
between  the  brain  of  the  chimpanzee  and  of 
man  is  almost  insignificant  when  compared 
with  that  between  the  chimpanzee  brain  and 
that  of  a  lemur.'* 

But  there  is  one  physiological  standard  by 
which  man  can  be  truly  measured,  which  ap- 
plies to  him  alone,  and  which  rounds  his 

78 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

whole  marvelous  being  —  his  faculty  of 
speech.  The  immeasurable  distance  betTveen 
man  and  every  other  animal  on  earth  is  fully 
accounted  for  by  the  existence,  the  nature 
and  the  significance  of  man's  words.  By  the 
sayings  of  Francis  Bacon  we  find  ourselves 
in  the  presence  of  an  intellect  which  grasps 
the  principles  of  all  knowledge.  In  the  words 
of  Shakespeare  wellnigh  every  experience 
of  human  life  is  vividly  embodied.  We  are 
awed  by  the  sublimity  and  the  solemnity  of 
the  thoughts  of  him  who  expressed  himself 
in  the  words  of  the  Ninetieth  Psalm,  So,  the 
more  we  ponder  it,  the  more  impassable 
grows  the  gulf  between  the  minds  of  those 
who  could  speak  thus  and  the  minds  of  dumb 
animals.  They  cannot  be  the  same  beings 
in  kind,  however  similar  their  bodily  rela- 
tionships be,  because  the  more  we  recognize 
what  the  presence  of  the  Logos  in  man  im- 
plies, the  plainer  becomes  the  reason  why  he 
stands  alone  in  this  world. 
Professor  Huxley  remarks  on  this  sub- 
79 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

ject:*  *' After  passion  and  prejudice  have 
died  away  the  same  result  will  attend  the 
teachings  of  the  naturalist  respecting  that 
great  Alps  and  Andes  of  the  living  world — 
Man.  Our  reverence  for  the  nobility  of  man- 
hood will  not  be  lessened  by  the  knowledge 
that  Man  is  in  substance  and  in  structure  one 
with  the  brutes,  for  he  alone  possesses  the 
marvellous  endowment  of  intelligible  and 
rational  speech.  .  .  .  Thus  he  stands  as  on  a 
mountain  top,  far  above  the  level  of  his  hum- 
ble fellows,  and  transfigured  from  his  lower 
nature,  by  reflecting  here  and  there  a  ray 
from  the  infinite  source  of  truth.*' 

Regarded  as  a  physiological  study  the  fac- 
ulty of  speech  consists  not  in  uttering  words, 
but  in  the  power  of  word  making.  The  pri- 
mary truth  about  a  word  is  that  it  comes  only 
from  mind.  Apart  from  mind  it  has  no  ex- 
istence. Every  word  was  originally  made  by 
a  personality  which  first  designed  and  in- 
vented it.  If  there  be  no  personality  there  can 

*  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  pp.  119,  132. 

80 


THE     FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

be  no  making  of  a  word.  Hence  no  word  ever 
came,  or  can  come,  into  existence  sponta- 
neously. No  human  being  was  ever  bom  with 
a  word.  A  word,  therefore,  is  an  artificial  hu- 
man product,  the  outgrowth  of  a  need,  just 
as  a  knife  was  first  made  by  some  one  who 
wanted  to  cut.  Being  purely  human  crea- 
tions, words,  like  all  man's  works,  sooner  or 
later  grow  old  and  die.  Some  of  the  finest 
languages  ever  spoken  are  now  dead.  There- 
fore it  is  not  words  as  such  which  concern 
the  physiologist,  but  the  capacity  for  making 
them,  for  this  is  the  faculty  of  speech  it- 
self. 

This  faculty  has  all  the  characters  of  a 
fundamental  physiological  fact,  because  it  is 
absolutely  generic.  No  speechless  race  of 
man  has  yet  been  found,  however  low  we  go 
in  the  scale  of  human  intelligence,  or  how- 
ever isolated  the  race;  and  every  speech  of 
savage  tribes  consists,  like  every  other 
speech,  not  of  so  many  sounds,  but  of  verbs, 
nouns,  and  partitives,  that  is,  with  all  of 
81 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

the   distinctively  mental   elements   of   true 
language. 

Not  the  least  impressive  fact  about  this 
exclusively  human  faculty  is  its  limitless 
power  of  creation.  The  remarkable  excel- 
lence of  the  languages  of  many  savage  races 
is  a  testimony  to  the  innate  power  of  this 
human  endowment.  Thus  the  Turks  were 
originally  a  barbarous  horde  of  High  Asia. 
Their  language  was  wholly  formed  while 
they  were  so.  It  is  one  of  the  finest,  if  not 
the  finest,  sounding  languages  in  the  world. 
It  has  been  the  least  modified  by  foreign 
influences  or  admixture  of  any  language  in 
Europe.  It  has  never  had  any  literature  of 
its  own  worth  mentioning,  but  this  is  what 
Max  Miiller  says  of  it :  ^  * '  We  have  before 
us  in  the  Turkish  a  language  of  perfectly 
transparent  structure,  and  a  grammar,  the 
inner  workings  of  which  we  can  study  as  if 
watching  the  building  of  cells  in  a  beehive. 
An  eminent  Orientalist  remarked,  that  we 

*  Science  of  Language,  First  Series,  p.  309. 

82 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

might  imagine  Turkish  to  be  the  result  of  the 
deliberations  of  some  famous  society  of 
learned  men.  But  no  such  society  could  have 
devised  what  the  mind  of  man  produced  left 
\o  itself  in  the  steppes  of  Tartary  and  guided 
only  by  its  innate  laws,  or  by  an  intuitive 
power  as  wonderful  as  any  within  the  realm 
of  Nature." 

Mr.  Crisp,  in  a  paper  read  at  the  Anthropo- 
logical Section  of  the  British  Association  of 
Science,  August,  1905,  said:^  ''The  Bantu 
languages  of  Africa  will  express  any  idea, 
however  esoteric,  and  will  do  it  with  extraor- 
dinary precision  and  often  with  great  felicity. 
A  foreigner  who  has  acquired  one  of  them 
will  often  leave  his  own  language  to  use  a 
Bantu  word,  because  it  conveys  his  thought 
more  aptly  and  tersely.  Bantu  proverbs  and 
metaphors  are  often  most  incisive,  empha- 
sizing with  much  power  and  delicacy  what  it 
is  intended  to  say.  They  are  masters  in  the 
art  of  destructive  criticism,  and  their  native 

»  Nature,  Nov,  16,  1905,  p.  66. 

83 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

shrewdness,  observation  and  wit  render  them 
dangerous  disputants." 

In  the  infancy  of  philology  some  theorists 
ascribed  the  beginning  of  words  to  phonetic 
imitations  of  natural  sounds.  But  this  bow- 
wow theory,  as  it  has  been  called,  soon  died 
after  the  recognition  of  the  infinite  human 
capacity  for  making  languages.  As  natural 
sounds  are  the  same  the  world  over,  if  this 
view  were  correct,  some  similarity  in  sound 
should  be  found  in  all  languages  among  the 
words  so  derived,  which  is  by  no  means  the 
case.  Even  in  baby  talk,  where  most  we 
would  expect  to  find  them,  the  words  vary  in 
sound  between  the  different  races  as  much  as 
do  the  words  of  adults.  Thus  the  word  '  *  bow- 
wow," meaning  a  dog,  is  found  only  in  Eng- 
lish. Indeed,  one  might  as  well  trace  a  navi- 
gable river  to  a  bottle  of  water,  as  to  sup- 
pose that  the  inexhaustible  stream  of  human 
speech  has  any  other  source  than  the  limitless 
spirit  of  man,  for,  owing  to  that  fact,  human 
speech  is  far  richer  than  any  one  language 
84 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

possibly  can  be.  There  is  much  truth  in  the 
saying  that  a  man  doubles  himself  when  he 
learns  a  new  language.  Whoever  enters  upon 
the  study  of  one  of  the  great  languages  of 
the  East,  such  as  the  Arabic,  soon  notes  not 
only  how  unlike  any  European  tongue  it  is, 
but  that  it  teems  with  words  and  construc- 
tions and  meanings  which  have  no  equiva- 
lents in  any  Western  speech. 

The  necessary  conclusion,  therefore,  which 
the  philologist  must  come  to  from  all  these 
facts,  is  that  the  source  of  all  words  is  the 
conscious  mind  or  human  personality  itself. 
It  is  not,  as  some  reasoners  loosely  state, 
that  language  makes  man,  but  it  is  man  who 
makes  language.  The  mind  comes  first  and 
is  altogether  the  beginning  and  cause  of  the 
word.  We  need  to  emphasize  this  primary 
truth  lest  it  escape  us  when  we  find  that  all 
words  have  their  material  anatomical  seats 
in  the  brain  upon  which  we  can  put  our  index 
finger.  Otherwise  we  might  infer  that  these 
material  localities,  these  speech  areas  of  gray; 
85 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

matter,  do  themselves  originate  the  words 
which  are  located  there.  We  shall  find  in- 
stead that  the  material  seats  of  words  in  the 
brain  matter  no  more  make  those  words  than 
the  shelves  of  a  library  make  the  books  ar- 
ranged on  them.  The  ultimate  fact  is  rather, 
as  revealed  by  the  physiological  study  of  the 
faculty  of  speech,  that  words  are  the  instru- 
ments which  the  thinker  invents  or  makes  for 
himself  for  the  purpose  of  defining  his 
thought.  Their  relations  to  thought  are  just 
as  definitely  instrumental  as  the  violinist's 
fingers  are  instrumental  to  the  expression  of 
his  thoughts  and  feelings  with  the  violin. 
The  violinist  thinks  first  in  time  before  a 
finger  moves,  and  the  thinker  thinks  first  in 
time  before  a  word  rises  to  his  lips.  By  de- 
grees, however,  the  mind  becomes  so  habitu- 
ated to  think  only  by  using  its  word  instru- 
ments that  in  adult  life  thought  without 
words  becomes  almost,  if  not  quite,  impossi- 
ble, because  in  all  thinking,  as  such,  the  man 
talks  to  himself  in  words,  whether  he  will 
86 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

later  talk  to  others  or  whether  he  be  thinking 
alone.  If  any  one  doubt  this,  let  him  try  to 
represent  a  true  thought  to  his  consciousness 
without  its  accompanying  words. 

It  should  be  clearly  recognized  that  this 
applies  only  to  thought  and  not  to  feelings. 
Thoughts  need  words  to  become  true 
thoughts,  but  feelings  do  not  need  words  to 
become  true  feelings ;  in  fact  we  often  vainly 
try  to  express  our  feelings  in  words,  and  find 
words  fail  us.  We  must  again  disclaim  here 
any  excursion  into  the  field  of  metaphysics, 
for  as  we  proceed  with  our  discussion,  we 
will  meet  with  illustrations  of  what  will  hap- 
pen to  an  adult 's  power  of  pure  thinking  upon 
actual  material  damage  to  his  brain  word 
apparatus.  When  such  damage  is  complete, 
though  manifestations  of  feeling  may  re- 
main, all  recognizable  signs  of  thought  are 
gone. 

Having  considered  the  relations  of  words 
to  thoughts,  we  now  come  to  a  crucial  point 
in  all  our  discussion,  namely,  the  relations  of 
87 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

words  to  the  brain.  We  can  scarcely  over- 
state the  importance  of  certain  modern  dis- 
coveries on  this  subject,  because  they  reveal 
the  first  recognizable  link  between  the  imma- 
terial and  the  material,  between  mind  and 
matter,  yet  demonstrated  in  science.  That 
link  never  would  have  been  guessed  by  meta- 
physicians, for  it  was  only  physicians  who 
could  have  discovered  such  facts  by  their 
noting  the  effects  of  small  and  strictly  local- 
ized brain  injuries.  The  simplest  way  to 
Illustrate  this  statement  is  to  narrate  some 
experience  of  physicians  which  teach  these 
lessons  of  such  extreme  interest. 

I  was  once  hurriedly  sent  for  by  an  old 
patient  of  mine.  I  found  her  much  disturbed 
by  a  strange  experience  which  she  imme- 
diately detailed  in  the  well-chosen  words  of 
an  educated  woman.  ''What  is  the  reason, 
Doctor, ' '  she  said, '  *  that  everything  in  a  book 
or  newspaper  is  illegible  to  me?  Last  even- 
ing I  sent  an  advertisement  to  the  Herald  for 
a  waitress,  and  when  the  girls  came  this  morn- 

88 


THE     FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

ing  I  could  not  read  their  references.  I  then 
took  up  the  Herald  and  found  that  I  could  not 
read  a  word  in  it.  At  first  I  supposed  my 
eyesight  had  failed,  but  I  could  see  everything 
around  the  room  as  well  as  ever,  and  so  also 
with  my  crochet  work.  I  then  opened  the 
Bible,  but  could  not  read  a  word.  Wliat  is  the 
matter  with  me  ? '  *  I  at  once  recognized  that 
she  had  been  struck  with  word-blindness,  as 
this  affection  is  technically  termed,  and  from 
that  day  to  her  death,  two  years  later,  she 
never  saw  a  word.  In  a  moment  of  time  she 
had  become  as  illiterate  as  an  Australian 
savage,  and  she  remained  so.  Having  calmed 
her  excitement  as  best  I  could,  I  was  able  to 
note  that  she  had  absolutely  no  other  disorder 
of  speech  and  none  of  vision.  She  heard 
every  word  that  came  to  her  ears,  and  she 
could  speak  as  fluently  as  ever,  but  no  word 
could  reach  her  consciousness  through  her 
eyes.  All  that  which  as  yet  had  happened  to 
her  was  that  a  little  arteiy  which  supplies 
blood  to  a  small  area  in  the  visual  region  of 
89 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

her  brain  had  become  plugged,  with  the  result 
of  totally  disorganizing  the  gray  matter 
where  eye  words  are  registered.  The  words, 
' '  the  blood  thereof,  which  is  the  life  thereof, ' ' 
find  their  best  illustration  in  that  most  living 
of  things,  the  brain  gray  matter,  for  it  imme- 
diately dies  if  deprived  of  its  supply  of 
blood. 

Another  example  of  the  total  loss  of  the 
power  of  recognizing  words  occurred  in  a 
hospital  patient,  but  in  him  it  was  not  words 
that  came  through  the  eye,  but  words  that 
came  through  the  ear,  which  he  could  not 
recognize,  so  that  he  had  what  is  termed 
word-deafness.  He  was  a  naturally  intelli- 
gent young  man  under  thirty,  a  clerk  in  a 
mercantile  establishment,  and  was  supposed 
to  have  become  insane,  because  though  he 
talked  incessantly,  he  talked  only  gibberish, 
and  moreover  he  did  not  seem  able  to  under- 
stand what  was  said  to  him.  It  was  soon 
found,  however,  that  he  could  read  and  write 
as  well  as  ever,  so  that  to  all  questions  that 

90 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

were  put  to  him  in  writing  he  wrote  correct 
answers.  The  reason  why  he  talked  so  inco- 
herently was  because  he  could  not  hear  his 
own  words,  and  for  the  same  reason  all  words 
addressed  to  his  ears  reached  his  conscious- 
ness only  as  sounds,  but  were  otherwise  as 
unintelligible  to  him  as  the  words  of  a  lan- 
guage which  he  had  never  heard.  It  was 
also  words  only  that  he  could  not  hear,  for  he 
heard  and  recognized  all  other  sounds,  in- 
cluding the  tick  of  a  watch  and  the  notes  of  a 
canary  bird.  Such  cases  of  word-deafness 
are  due  to  the  same  kind  of  damage  to  a  small 
locality  in  the  auditory  area  of  the  brain  as 
that  which  causes  word-blindness  in  the  visual 
area. 

A  third  form  of  loss  of  words  is  still  more 
common.  A  man  retires  to  bed  in  good 
health,  but  is  found  in  the  morning  utterly 
unable  to  speak  a  word.  It  is  soon  ascer- 
tained that  he  has  no  word-deafness,  for  he 
evidently  understands  everything  that  is 
spoken  to  him,  and  that  he  has  no  word- 
91 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

blindness,  because  lie  can  read.  But  he  may 
not  be  able  to  utter  a  word,  still  less  a  sen- 
tence. In  his  distress,  he  may  make  signs 
that  he  would  like  to  write,  but  even  if  he  can 
hold  a  pen  well  and  begin  to  write,  it  is  usu- 
ally found  that  he  cannot  find  the  words  to 
express  himself  by  writing  any  more  than  he 
can  by  speaking. 

Thus  it  is  that  processes  of  disease  enable 
us  to  analyze  our  brain  mechanism  of  speech 
with  all  the  precision  of  well-devised  experi- 
ments. By  this  means  we  learn,  as  otherwise 
we  could  not,  that  speech  is  of  two  kinds. 
The  first  kind  consists  of  words  which  come 
to  us,  and  these  are  words  which  arrive 
through  the  ear,  and  then  go  to  a  particular 
locality  in  what  is  called  the  first  temporal 
convolution,  which  is  in  the  cortical  area  of 
hearing,  where  they  are  received  as  words; 
and  the  second  consists  of  words  which  come 
to  us  through  the  eye  in  reading,  and  which 
go  to  an  entirely  different  place  from  the  ear 
words,  for  they  are  received  as  words  in  a 
92 


THE     FACULTY    OF    SPEECH 

special  locality  called  the  angular  gyrus  id 
the  cortical  visual  area.  It  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  there  is  no  resemblance  whatever 
between  the  sound  of  the  word  man,  for  exam- 
ple, and  the  written  word  man,  for  sound  and 
sight  are  two  wholly  separate  things;  and 
hence  sound  words  and  sight  words  have  each 
their  different  brain  registries.  Modern  in- 
vention has  doubtless  added  a  third  word  reg- 
istry connected  with  the  sense  of  touch,  by 
which  the  blind  are  enabled  to  read,  but  its 
special  locality  has  not  yet  been  identi- 
6ed. 

The  second  kind  of  speech  consists  of  words 
which  go  froyn  us,  or  which  we  ourselves 
utter.  This  division  of  the  faculty  of  speech 
is  wholly  different  from  the  first,  because  in 
that  we  are  passive  and  receive  the  words, 
while  in  this  we  are  active  and  ourselves  give 
forth  the  words.  We  do  this  either  by  word 
of  mouth  or  by  word  of  hand  in  writing,  and 
to  thus  express  ourselves  an  entirely  distinct 
mechanism  is  required,  because  it  involves 
93 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

muscular  movements.  It  is  therefore  called 
motor  speech,  and  proceeds  from  an  alto- 
gether different  place  in  the  brain  cortex,  in 
a  region  from  which  muscular  movements  are 
initiated,  particularly  in  those  regions  which 
govern  the  movements  of  the  tongue  and 
other  muscles  of  articulation,  and  which  are 
also  in  proximity  to  the  motor  areas  govern- 
ing the  hands.  Here  in  a  small  patch  of  gray 
matter,  not  larger  than  a  hazel  nut,^  located 
in  a  part  of  a  convolution  called  Broca's  con- 
volution, from  the  French  surgeon  who  first 
identified  its  connection  with  speech,  is  stored 
every  word  that  can  be  spoken!  Let  this 
remarkable  piece  of  matter  be  separately 
destroyed,  as  it  often  is  by  a  gush  of  blood 
from  a  ruptured  artery,  and  the  consciousness 
is  utterly  unable  to  find  a  word  with  which 
to  express  itself.  It  still  may  have  its  power 
to  receive  all  words  from  others  through  the 
ear  or  eye,  but  not  a  word  can  it  communicate 

*Ro8en8tein,  quoted  by  SirWm.  Gowers:  Diseases  of  the 
Nervous  System,  vol.  ii.,  p.  115,  2d  Edition,  1901. 

94 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

in  return.  The  point  of  an  umbrella  once 
neatly  destroyed  this  last  or  uttering  center 
in  a  man  who  was  brought  to  Bellevue  Hos- 
pital wholly  unable  to  speak  a  word,  though 
he  could  hear  words  by  his  ear  and  read  with 
his  eye  as  well  as  ever.  The  story  told  by 
his  friends  was  that  in  a  drunken  row  a  man 
poked  the  tip  of  an  umbrella  into  his  eye,  but 
instead  of  seriously  injuring  that  organ  it 
passed  over  the  eyeball  into  his  brain  just 
where  the  uttering  speech  center  lies  resting 
on  only  a  thin  plate  in  the  bony  roof  of  the 
orbit.  From  the  situation  of  the  small  hole 
made  in  the  roof  of  the  orbit  this  pointed 
stick  could  have  gone  nowhere  else,  and  from 
his  subsequent  symptoms  it  evidently  caused 
no  hemorrhage  or  other  damage,  except  just 
in  Broca's  convolution.  While  I  was  describ- 
ing his  case  to  a  large  class  at  my  clinic,  he 
saw  a  student  with  an  umbrella  in  his  hand 
and,  pointing  to  it,  he  burst  into  tears.  Mean- 
while he  had  a  wholly  uninjured  Broca's  con- 
volution in  his  other  hemisphere,  but  though 
he  wept  at  his  inability,  he  could  not  make  it 

95 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

talk  for  reasons  which  we  will  subsequently 
explain.  These  different  derangements  of 
speech,  due  to  organic  changes  in  the  word 
mechanism,  are  technically  called  aphasias, 
and  divided  into  the  sensory  forms,  when  eye 
or  ear  words  are  deranged,  or  motor  aphasia, 
when  Broca's  convolution  is  damaged. 

Now,  as  we  have  remarked  before,  the  gray 
matter  of  no  one  of  these  three  seats  of  words 
originates  or  makes  any  words.  They  are 
simply  registered  there  for  use,  as  they  would 
be  on  a  printed  page,  or  on  a  wax  leaf  of  a 
phonograph,  and  how  that  is  done  we  will 
learn  further  on. 

We  have  already  likened  those  speech  areas 
to  the  shelves  of  a  library,  with  words  ar- 
ranged thereon  like  so  many  volumes,  and 
that  something  very  similar  to  this  is  actually 
the  case,  is  demonstrated  by  facts  such  as 
these.  When  a  man  sets  about  to  learn  a 
language  new  to  him,  he  has  to  add  another 
brain  shelf  for  that  purpose,  because  the  old 
shelf  has  too  many  books  on  it  to  allow  any 
room  for  a  row  of  entirely  new  words.  Pro- 
96 


THE    FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

fessor  Hinshelwood,*  of  the  University  of 
Glasgow,  publishes  the  ease  of  a  highly  edu- 
cated man  who  was  brought  to  him  for  an 
attack  of  ordinary  word-blindness.  He  could 
read  his  native  English  in  print  only  with  the 
greatest  diflBculty,  and  words  in  writing 
scarcely  at  all.  As  Dr.  Hinshelwood  was  told 
that  the  patient  had  learned  Greek,  Latin  and 
French,  he  first  tested  him  with  Greek,  when 
the  patient  was  surprised  and  delighted  to 
find  that  he  could  read  Greek  perfectly,  as  he 
did  paragraphs  in  Homer,  Thucydides  and 
Xenophon.  Then  testing  his  Latin,  he  could 
read  it  far  better  than  he  could  English,  but 
not  as  perfectly  as  Greek,  while  in  French  he 
made  more  mistakes  than  in  Latin,  but  still 
read  it  a  great  deal  better  than  he  could  his 
native  English.  The  only  explanation,  of 
course,  of  this  case  is  that  the  injury  to  his 
brain  matter  nearly  ruined  the  English  shelf, 
then  damaged  to  a  less  extent  the  French,  and 

» Lancet,  Feb.  8,  1902.     Also  his  book,  Letter,  Word  and 
Mind  Blindness,  London,  1901. 

9Z 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

still  less  the  Latin  shelf,  while  the  Greek  shelf 
escaped  entirely. 

The  same  arrangement  holds  true  also  in 
the  auditory  word  mechanism.  Dr.  Hinshel- 
wood  reports  the  case  of  a  Frenchman  who 
made  his  living  in  Glasgow  as  a  teacher  of 
French  for  a  number  of  years,  during  which 
he  learned  English.  After  returning  to  his 
native  country  he  had  a  stroke  of  apoplexy, 
from  which  he  became  word-deaf  in  French, 
while  his  English  shelf  remained  intact  so 
that  his  wife  could  speak  to  him,  but  only  in 
English. 

But  while  such  instances  indicate  that 
these  shelves  are  arranged  one  above  the 
other,  other  facts  show  that  the  books  may 
be  so  jammed  sidewise,  so  to  speak,  that  not 
one  of  them  can  be  got  out,  in  which  case  the 
event  proves  that  on  each  shelf  the  verbs  are 
placed  first,  the  pronouns  next,  then  the 
prepositions  and  adverbs  next,  and  the  nouns 
last.  A  man  was  brought  to  my  clinic  who 
could  not  speak  a  word.    My  diagnosis  was 

98 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

that  lie  probably  had  a  tumor-like  swelling 
in  the  speech  area,  which  might  be  absorbed 
by  giving  him  iodide  of  potassium.  I  had 
him  removed  then  so  that  he  could  not  hear 
what  I  was  to  say,  while  I  told  the  class  that 
if  he  recovered  he  would  very  likely  get  his 
verbs  first  and  his  nouns  last.  When  he  re- 
turned two  weeks  afterward,  on  my  showing 
him  a  knife  he  said,  ''you  cut";  a  pencil, 
* '  you  write ' ' ;  etc.  Three  weeks  later  he  had 
all  his  prepositions,  but  he  could  name  no 
noxm  for  several  weeks  after  that.  The  rea- 
sons for  all  this  are  that  verbs  are  our  inner- 
most and,  therefore,  first  learned  words,  be- 
cause we  know  that  we  see,  we  hear,  etc., 
before  we  know  what  it  is  we  see  or  hear, 
while  nouns  represent  things  outside  of  us  to 
which  we  lastly  give  names.  The  nouns  which 
we  learn  after  all  the  others,  and  therefore 
forget  the  soonest,  are  the  names  of  persons, 
so  that  elderly  people  very  commonly  com- 
plain how  they  cannot  recall  persons'  names. 
These  cerebral  library  shelves  may  also  be 
99 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

partially,  instead  of  completely,  damaged  by 
accidents  to  the  brain,  with  results  not  unlike 
those  which  often  disturb  the  equanimity  of 
a  student  when  the  house-cleaning  season 
arrives,  and  women  invade  his  study  for  a 
general  dusting  of  his  books.  For  days  after- 
wards he  picks  up  the  wrong  book,  because 
it  has  been  put  back  where  it  does  not  belong. 
So,  after  some  brain  shock,  a  person  may  be 
able  to  speak,  but  the  wrong  word  often  vexa- 
tiously  comes  to  his  lips,  just  as  if  his  Broca 
shelves  had  become  badly  jumbled.  To  this 
condition  the  term  paraphasia  is  given. 

There  may  be  shelves  in  these  cerebral 
libraries,  however,  for  other  things  than 
words.  Professor  Edgren  of  Stockholm  has 
published  the  records  of  a  number  of  patients 
who  had  lost  the  pbwer  of  reading  music, 
though  they  could  still  read  words,  that  is, 
they  became  music  note-blind  instead  of  word- 
blind.  In  Dr.  Hinshelwood 's  patient  men- 
tioned above,  who  could  read  Greek  but  not 
English,  the  reverse  took  place,  for  he  could 
100 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

still  read  music  as  well  as  ever,  though  he 
could  not  read  a  sentence  in  English. 

The  most  interesting,  however,  of  these 
separate  registries  is  that  for  figures.  As 
the  damage  to  the  speech  apparatus  often 
involves  more  than  one  registry,  the  follow- 
ing record  of  a  case  in  my  own  experience  is 
of  interest,  because  it  proves  that  if  only  one 
of  the  three  speech  mechanisms  remain  un- 
injured, the  personality  can  use  that  one 
sufficiently  well  for  all  practical  purposes. 
A  gentleman  who  during  a  long,  active  busi- 
ness career  had  accumulated  a  fortune,  had 
an  attack  of  apoplexy  which,  while  causing  no 
muscular  paralysis,  yet  made  him  both  word- 
blind  and  wholly  unable  to  utter  a  word.  He 
remained  in  this  condition  for  seven  years, 
but  what  brought  him  to  my  office,  in  company 
with  his  lawyer  and  only  son,  was  that  my 
opinion  was  sought  as  to  his  competence  to 
make  a  will.  His  lawyer  produced  one  in 
which  the  patient  devised  a  certain  amount 
of  property,  consisting  of  pieces  of  real 
101 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

estate  and  of  other  items,  each  very  definitely 
mentioned,  to  his  married  daughter,  which 
was,  in  the  testator's  opinion,  a  very  fair 
division  of  his  property  between  his  two  chil- 
dren. His  manufacturing  business,  however, 
he  devised  exclusively  to  his  son.  Learning 
that  his  son-in-law  was  dissatisfied  with  this 
arrangement,  and  might  induce  his  wife  to 
contest  her  father's  will  after  his  death  by  a 
claim  to  a  share  in  the  profits  of  the  factory, 
on  the  ground  that  in  his  condition  he  was 
incapable  of  making  a  will,  he  came  to  me  as 
an  expert  to  give  my  written  opinion  on  the 
subject.  It  was  naturally  felt  by  his  son  and 
his  lawyer  that  a  very  plausible  case  might 
be  made  out  to  the  jury  by  the  other  side, 
that  a  man  who  could  not  himself  read  a  word 
of  his  will,  nor  utter  a  sound  by  which  he 
could  express  what  he  wanted,  might  easily 
be  imposed  upon  by  the  persons  interested  to 
do  so.  In  my  examination  of  him  it  was 
found  that  though  he  could  not  read,  and  like- 
wise could  not  write,  as  his  utterance  speech 
102 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

mechanism  was  wholly  ruined,  yet  he  could 
both  read  and  write  figures  as  well  as  ever, 
in  fact  that  he  was  unusually  adept  in  all 
arithmetical  calculations.  Meantime  nothing 
could  persuade  him  to  retire  from  business, 
and  so  for  seven  years  he  continued  to  buy 
and  sell  as  he  always  had  done,  for  he  wrote 
the  sums  for  all  transactions  and  pointing  to 
the  figures  with  his  pencil,  the  bargain  had 
to  be  forthwith  concluded.  In  illustration  he 
produced  a  memorandum  book  of  his,  in  which 
were  entered  numerous  such  accounts,  par- 
ticularly directing  my  attention  by  his  finger 
to  one  of  them  in  which  he  had  bought  a  third 
interest  in  a  business  enterprise,  and  in 
which  he  had  entered  all  payments  correctly 
on  that  basis,  the  sums  varying  according  to 
the  year's  profits.  As  questions  relating  to 
the  testamentary  capacity  of  aphasics  have 
come  up  in  many  courts  of  both  Europe  and 
America,  quite  a  literature  has  grown  up  on 
this  subject,  and  I  proceeded  to  test  this  par- 
ticular case  according  to  its  accepted  rules. 
103 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

I  took  the  will  and  looked  it  carefully  over  be- 
fore him,  and  then  read  it  aloud,  item  by 
item,  to  each  of  which  he  nodded  assent,  until 
I  designedly  misread  one  stipulation  as  in 
favor  of  the  son  when  it  was  actually  in  favor 
of  the  daughter.  The  old  gentleman  was 
furious  at  my  supposed  mistake,  and  was 
quick  to  correct  any  other  inaccuracies  in  my 
reading,  however  minor  in  importance  they 
were.  I  therefore  could  give  a  decided  opin- 
ion that  he  was  entirely  competent  to  devise 
a  will,  and  I  was  glad  to  learn  afterwards 
that  this  precautionary  measure  on  his  part 
prevented  any  trouble  in  settling  the  estate 
when  he  died  some  months  afterwards.  The 
place  for  registering  figures  is  doubtless 
somewhere  in  the  visual  area  of  the  cortex, 
but  in  his  case  so  removed  from  the  eye- 
word  registry  that  it  escaped  damage  as 
completely  as  his  ear-word  mechanism  had 
done. 

Meantime  this  patient  had  repeatedly  tried 
to  learn  to  speak  and  to  read  again  after  the 
104 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

sudden  onset  of  his  calamity,  but  though  he 
endeavored  with  characteristic  perseverance 
to  get  back  some  of  the  lost  parts  of  his 
speech,  yet  he  failed  altogether.  Mentally  he 
was  just  the  same,  and  his  personality  with 
all  its  peculiarities  remained  the  same,  but 
those  particular  chords  of  the  instrument 
were  irretrievably  broken.  Why  he,  just  like 
the  man  whose  uttering  center  was  destroyed 
by  the  umbrella  tip,  could  not  substitute 
another  set  of  precisely  similar  chords  which 
he  had  in  his  brain,  and  which  also  were  per- 
fectly intact,  we  will  explain  in  the  next 
chapter,  because  that  explanation  covers  the 
whole  subject  of  how  we  talk  at  all. 


105 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    FACULTY    OF   SPEECH CONTINUED 

It  should  be  noted  first  of  all  that  no  part  of 
the  human  brain  has  any  original,  that  is, 
native  connection  with  the  gift  of  speech. 
The  material  seat  or  region  in  the  braiQ  of 
this  great  faculty  comes  always  as  an  ac- 
quired change  in  the  brain,  for  no  one  ever 
was  born  with  it.  Hence  at  birth  speech  has 
no  place  or  locality  whatever  in  either  hemi- 
sphere. We  may  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that 
if  the  distinguishing  fact  about  man  is  that 
he  is  a  speaking  animal,  this  is  not  owing  to 
the  structure  of  his  brain,  for  not  only  has 
the  chimpanzee  just  the  same  convolutions 
which  man  has  for  speech,  but  like  the  chim- 
panzee, man  has  the  same  convolutions  in 
pairs,  that  is,  in  both  hemispheres.  And  yet 
man  uses  only  one  of  these  pairs  for  speech, 
106 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

while  the  same  set  of  convolutions  in  his 
other  hemisphere  is  no  more  used  for  speech 
than  either  pair  is  used  for  that  purpose  by 
the  chimpanzee.  If,  therefore,  the  word  fac- 
ulty was  an  original  endowment  of  those 
word  areas  in  man,  on  account  of  their  par- 
ticular construction,  those  areas  being  just 
alike  in  each  hemisphere,  then  both  hemi- 
spheres would  be  used  for  speech.  Instead  of 
this  being  the  case,  the  entire  word  mechan- 
ism in  all  its  parts  is  found  only  in  one  of  the 
two  hemispheres,  while  the  other  hemisphere 
remains  wordless  for  life. 

With  the  great  majority  of  persons  the 
speech  centers  are  located  exclusively  in  the 
left  hemisphere.  It  is  a  part  of  the  left  supe- 
rior temporal  convolution  which  hears  words ; 
it  is  a  part  of  the  left  angular  gyrus  which 
sees  words ;  and  it  is  the  left  Broca's  convolu- 
tion which  utters  words.  In  all  such  persons 
the  corresponding  places  in  the  right  hemi- 
sphere are  not  speech  areas  at  all. 

It  would  be  natural  to  infer  from  all  this 
107 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

that  the  left  brain  is  organized  differently 
from  the  right  brain  as  far  as  this  supreme 
endowment  is  concerned.  But  it  is  not  so, 
for  the  good  reason  that  in  some  persons  the 
speech  centers  are  in  the  right  brain  alone, 
and  it  is  their  left  brains  which  are  the  word- 
less ones.  Moreover  such  persons  are  not  a 
whit  inferior  to  the  others  in  everything 
which  language  demands. 

Therefore,  again,  it  is  not  brain  structure, 
nor  organization,  nor  locality,  nor  brain  cells 
or  fibers,  nor  any  similar  thing  which  is  the 
first  cause  of  word  making.  That  first  cause 
is  something  wholly  different,  namely,  an 
agency,  or  rather  agent,  which  visits  these 
brain  localities,  and  finding  them  originally 
entirely  unfamiliar  with  a  single  word  of  any 
kind,  proceeds  by  a  long  and  incessant  repe- 
tition process  of  teaching,  to  fashion  those 
particles  of  gray  matter  to  do  what  he  pro- 
poses, here  to  receive  words  and  there  to 
utter  words.  How  he  manages  to  do  this  is 
revealed  by  his  original  reason  for  choosing 
108 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

the  left  brain  in  most  persons,  but  in  others 
not  the  left  but  the  right  brain. 

The  facts  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  the 
first  steps  in  the  formation  of  the  word  mech- 
anism in  man  were  that  it  was  noted  that 
when  sudden  paralysis  occurs  on  one  side 
of  the  body,  if  it  be  the  right  side  which  is 
paralyzed,  the  side  which  is  governed  by  the 
left  brain,  motor  or  uttering  speech  is  also 
very  commonly  affected.  The  reason  for  this 
is  that  Broca's  convolution,  which  contains 
the  center  for  motor  speech,  as  we  have 
already  explained,  is  situated  in  that  part 
of  the  cortex  which  is  called  the  motor  area, 
because  from  that  area  proceed  those  excita- 
tions of  muscular  movements  which  are  of  a 
voluntary  kind.  A  powerful  spurt  of  blood 
from  a  ruptured  cerebral  artery  may  so  tear 
the  brain  tissue  as  to  involve  these  motor 
centers  or  the  fibers  leading  from  them,  and 
in  so  doing  frequently  involves  Broca's  con- 
volution among  the  rest.  Post-mortem  ex- 
aminations fully  confirm  this  statement. 
109 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

Meantime  as  the  right  hemisphere  is  then 
found  to  be  quite  unaffected,  including  the 
right  Broca  's  convolution,  it  is  plain  that  the 
loss  of  speech  is  due  exclusively  to  the  injury 
to  the  left  hemisphere. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  loss  of  speech  or- 
dinarily accompanies  right-sided,  but  not 
left-sided  paralysis,  some  cases  have  been  re- 
ported  in  which  it  accompanied  left-sided, 
and  not  right-sided  paralysis.  In  time  more 
of  these  cases  were  published,  along  with  the 
significant  post-mortem  findings  of  damage 
to  the  right  instead  of  the  left  Broca 's  convo- 
lution. In  other  instances,  in  patients  who, 
with  left-sided  paralysis  and  loss  of  motor 
speech,  had  also  showed  word-blindness  dur- 
ing life,  not  only  the  right  Broca 's  convolu- 
tion, but  the  region  of  the  right  angular 
gyrus  was  likewise  found  damaged.  As  the 
corresponding  places  in  the  left  hemisphere 
were  intact,  it  followed  that  in  these  persons 
the  speech  centers  were  in  the  right  brain 
and  not  in  the  left. 

110 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

It  vras  not  long  before  this  seemingly 
curious  anomaly  found  its  explanation, 
which  is  that  right-sided  paralysis  with  loss 
of  speech  occurs  in  right-handed  people,  and 
left-sided  paralysis  with  loss  of  speech  occurs 
in  persons  who  have  been  left-handed  in  life. 
In  other  words,  the  faculty  of  speech  is 
located  in  the  hemisphere  which  governs  the 
hand  which  is  most  used.  Hand  and  speech, 
therefore,  are  physiologically  connected. 

This  remarkable  fact  brings  us  back  to  the 
origin,  to  the  very  beginning  of  this  wonder- 
ful faculty  of  expression  in  man.  It  began 
by  one  personality  longing  to  communicate 
with  others,  and  the  first  thing  which  he 
did  then,  as  every  human  being  still  does 
when  endeavoring  to  communicate  with  those 
whose  vocal  speech  he  does  not  know,  was  to 
make  gestures  with  his  hands.  Gesture  lan- 
guage, therefore,  was  the  first  language,  and 
few  persons  are  aware  how  much  gesture 
language  still  continues  in  living  use.  This 
is  particularly  noticeable  among  all  peoples 
111 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

who  have  no  written  language;  but  even 
among  the  most  civilized,  whole  races  are 
characterized  by  the  number  and  variety  of 
their  gestures  while  speaking,  quite  as  much 
as  by  their  vocabulary.  A  non-gesticulating 
Frenchman  is  as  uncommon  as  a  taciturn 
Frenchman.  One  has  to  learn  two  languages 
among  the  Arabs,  for  nothing  can  exceed  the 
expressiveness  and  piquancy  of  those  ges- 
tures by  which  they  often  more  than  double 
the  meaning  of  their  words. 

The  important  place  which  gesture  lan- 
guage holds  among  primitive  peoples  is  well 
iUustrated  by  the  following  anecdote:  Dr. 
Walter  Roth,  in  the  preface  to  his  Ethnologi- 
cal Studies  of  the  Northwestern  Queensland 
(Australia)  Aborigines,  says:  **  I  was  out 
on  horseback  with  some  blacks,  when  one  of 
the  boys  riding  by  my  side  suddenly  asked 
me  to  halt,  as  a  mate  of  his  in  front  was  after 
some  emus,  consisting  of  a  hen  bird  and  her 
young  progeny.  As  there  had  been  appa- 
rently to  me  no  communication  whatsoever 
112 


THE     FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

between  the  boy  in  front  and  the  one  close  to 
me,  separated  as  they  were  by  a  distance  of 
quite  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  I  naturally 
concluded  that  my  informant  was  uttering  a 
falsehood,  and  told  him  so  in  pretty  plain 
terms,  with  the  result,  that  after  certain 
mutual  recriminations,  he  explained,  on  his 
hands,  how  he  had  received  his  information, 
the  statement  to  be  shortly  afterwards  con- 
firmed by  the  arrival  of  the  lad  himself  with 
the  dead  bird  and  some  of  the  young  in  ques- 
tion. ...  I  afterwards  found  that  there  is 
an  actual  well-defined  sign  language  which 
extends  through  the  entire  Northwestern  dis- 
tricts of  Queensland." 

Among  our  staid  Anglo-Saxons  a  preacher 
like  Whitfield  moved  his  audience  more  by 
what  they  saw  him  do  with  the  muscles  of  his 
face  and  of  his  hands  than  by  the  words  he 
uttered,  for  those  words  we  have  in  his 
printed  sermons,  and  we  wonder  at  the  effect 
they  had  on  his  hearers.  His  voice  certainly 
could  not  account  for  the  whole  difference. 
113 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

An  inspection  of  the  Frontispiece  plate 
shows  in  what  close  proximity  to  the  area 
governing  the  movements  of  the  hand  in  the 
motor  region  of  the  brain  are  the  centers 
which  preside  over  the  movements  of  the 
muscles  of  the  face,  of  the  lips  and  of  the 
tongue.  A  common  and  associated  action  of 
these  parts,  therefore,  would  be  much  more 
natural  than  between  the  muscles  of  the  face, 
for  example,  and  those  of  the  leg.  We  can 
then  see  how  readily  facial  expression,  lend- 
ing itself  to  gesture  in  attempts  at  communi- 
cation, would  seek  the  co-operation  of  lips 
and  tongue  for  vocal  sounds,  3oon  to  become 
words  because  of  the  human  mind  back  of  the 
sounds.  This  last  element  of  mind,  as  we  will 
note  later,  is  indispensable,,  because  other- 
wise the  sounds  would  have  remained  for- 
ever only  like  those  of  an  anthropoid  ape. 

But  as  the  right  hand  is  the  oftenest  used 

for  every  purpose,  so  is  it  of  the  two  hands 

the  oftenest  used  for  gesture,  which  means 

of  course  for  language.    As  soon  as  other 

114 


THE     FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

parts  were  sought  for  to  co-operate  with  ges- 
ture in  language,  the  appeal  would  neces- 
sarily be  to  the  neighboring  centers  in  the 
left  brain,  and  not  by  crossing  the  corpus 
callosum  bridge  to  the  corresponding  centers 
in  the  other  hemisphere.  It  would  not  be 
long,  therefore,  before  the  habit  became  set- 
tled to  use  only  parts  in  the  left  brain  for 
this  specialized  work,  until  finally  the  habit 
became  fixed  for  life. 

Why  some  people  are  left-handed  we  do 
not  know.  The  discussion  on  the  origin  of 
right-handedness  and  left-handedness  comes 
down  to  us  from  ancient  times  and  is  ever 
renewed.  Scarcely  a  month  passes  without 
it  being  all  threshed  out  again  in  our  medical 
journals.  But  the  primary  connection  of  the 
hand  with  the  fashioning  of  the  word  mech- 
anism in  the  human  brain  is  conclusively 
settled  by  the  location  of  that  mechanism  in 
the  right  hemisphere  in  left-handed  persons. 
Whence,  therefore,  the  impulses  mostly  pro- 
ceed for  using  the  particular  hand  in  ques- 
115 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

tion  settles  both  to  what  cerebral  places 
words  are  to  go,  and  from  what  place  they 
are  to  come. 

So  far  we  have  been  led  by  anatomical 
facts.  Thus,  Broca's  convolution  is  no  more 
a  theory  than  a  finger  is,  for  it  is  a  definite 
material  thing.  But  what  makes  Broca's 
convolution  talk?  Evidently  not  simply  be- 
cause it  is  Broca's  convolution,  because  there 
is  another  Broca's  convolution  within  the 
same  cranium  which  does  not  talk. 

This  question,  which  really  concerns  the 
origin  of  human  speech,  is  not  best  answered 
by  studying  speech  in  children  and  noting 
how  they  begin.  Many  reasoners  go  astray 
here,  because  with  preconceived  views  about 
the  automatic  origin  of  words,  which  children 
are  supposed  to  learn  by  imitation,  they 
wholly  ignore  the  anatomical  brain  changes 
which  are  necessary  to  make  speech,  and 
what  it  is  which  causes  them.  If  they  are 
studied  it  will  then  appear  that  these  anatom- 
ical changes  cannot  possibly  be  of  automatic 
116 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

origin,  but  rather  must  be  the  effects  and  re- 
sults of  purpose.  The  best  age,  therefore, 
for  starting  this  investigation  is  when  the 
subject  begins  to  learn  to  read. 

The  ability  to  read  constitutes  an  impor- 
tant department  of  language,  and  no  human 
race  has  yet  been  found  which  cannot  be 
taught  to  read  if  the  attempt  be  made  early 
enough  in  life.  Thus  Bishop  Hale,  of  Perth, 
W.  A.  (in  his  Aborigines  of  Australia),  men- 
tions that  *'  A  shepherd,  Adams,  has  taken 
to  wife  a  native  woman,  who  had  been 
brought  up  at  some  settler's  station  and  was 
partially  educated.  Adams  could  not  read, 
and  the  black  wife  taught  the  white  husband 
to  read." 

It  is  no  longer  doubtful  that  every  race  of 
man  can  be  educated  to  know  anything,  from 
reading  and  writing  to  mathematics,  philos- 
ophy and  political  economy.  In  other  words 
man  is  always  and  everywhere  man,  and  in- 
finitely distant  in  mind  from  every  ape.  Some 
early  anthropologists  were  mistaken  enough 
117 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

to  say  that  certain  races  of  men  were  too  low 
in  the  scale  to  be  able  to  count  above  five,  the 
number  of  their  fingers,  and  they  cited  some 
tribes  among  the  Australian  savages  as  ex- 
amples. We  need  only  quote  the  following 
as  to  the  actual  facts. 

Mr.  James  Dawson,  in  his  Australian 
Aborigines,  published  in  Melbourne  in  1881, 
records  the  following  remarkable  evidence: 
''The  inspection  of  the  aboriginal  school 
at  Ramahyuck,  in  Gippsland,  during  the 
past  eleven  years,  gets  a  percentage  of 
results  higher  than  the  other  state  (white) 
schools  in  Victoria,  and  while  no  doubt  this 
excellence  is  largely  due  to  the  regularity 
with  which  the  children  attend  school,  and  to 
the  skill  and  zeal  of  the  gentlemen  who  teach 
them,  it  fairly  shows  that  aboriginal  children 
are  at  least  equal  to  others  in  power  of  learn- 
ing those  branches  of  education  which  are 
taught  in  the  state  schools  of  Victoria.  On 
several  occasions  of  examination  bv  a  goY- 
emment  inspector,  the  percentage  oC  the 
118 


THE     FACULTY    OF     SPEECH 

Ramaliyuck  school  v,as  a  hundred,  a  result 
unparalleled  by  any  other  school  in  the 
colony. ' '  ^ 

Now  no  one  can  imagine  that  learning  to 
read  can  be  automatic.  It  requires  instead 
the  most  persevering  attention  and  applica- 
tion for  many  months.  Over  and  over  again 
the  pictures  of  the  separate  letters  have  to  be, 
identified  so  as  to  be  distinguished  from  one 
another,  and  then  their  combination  into 
words  successively  mastered  till  the  word 
sjTubol  and  its  meaning  are  simultaneously 
recognized.  This  process  of  brain  shaping 
has  to  be  done  piece  by  piece,  or  layer  by 
layer,  so  that  some  persons  become  word- 
blind  without  being  letter-blind.  But  a  less 
spontaneous  cerebral  act  than  this  can 
scarcely  be  conceived.  If  it  is  not  wholly  the 
doing  of  what  we  call  will,  then  what  is  it! 
But  the  most  pregnant  fact  about  this  pro- 

*  See  article,  The  Position  of  the  Australian  Aborigines 
in  the  Scale  of  Human  Intelligence,  by  the  Hon.  J. 
Mildred  Creed,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  Magazine,  January, 
1905. 

119 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

cess  of  learning  to  read  is  that  by  the  con- 
stant repetition  of  the  will-directed  effort  to 
see  the  letter  and  word  pictures,  an  actual 
modification  of  gray  matter  results  in  a 
limited  portion  of  the  visual  area,  so  that  it 
can  do  what  no  other  gray  matter  anywhere 
can  do, — see  and  recognize  words. 

Here,  surely,  we  come  upon  a  most  im- 
pressive fact,  namely,  that  by  constant  repe- 
tition of  a  given  stimulus,  we  can  effect  a 
permanent  anatomical  change  in  our  brain 
stuff,  which  will  add  a  specific  and  remarka- 
ble cerebral  function  to  that  place,  which  it 
never  had  before,  and  which,  therefore,  it 
could  not  have  had  either  originally  or  spon- 
taneously. This  material  change  must  be 
there,  though  no  microscope  will  ever  detect 
it,  or  identify  the  English  reading  from  the 
French  reading  cells,  in  one  who  can  read 
both  languages,  but  yet  there  it  must  be,  or 
a  blood  clot,  or  an  umbrella  tip,  could  not  de- 
stroy it.  But  this  material  change  was  not 
effected  easily ;  rather  it  came  only  by  laborl- 
120 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

ous  and  long-continued  work  spent  on  that 
collection  of  gray  matter,  and  work  by  some- 
thing which  must  be  wholly  extraneous  to  the 
gray  matter  itself.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose 
that  any  other  areas  of  the  cortex  which  can- 
not of  themselves  recognize  a  letter  or  word, 
are  the  teachers  of  the  cells  in  the  angular 
gyrus  which  do  the  reading.  It  is  the  con- 
scious personality  alone  which  does  this  work, 
and  no  better  proof  of  this  is  needed  to  show 
that  such  must  be  the  process  than  when,  in 
later  years,  a  student  learns  to  read  Greek, 
Latin  and  French,  as  did  Dr.  Hinshelwood's 
patient  above  cited.  When  that  man  sepa- 
rately studied  those  three  languages,  in 
addition  to  his  childhood's  speech,  his  con- 
sciousness and  his  will  certainly  co-operated 
in  prolonged  exercise,  until  wholly  distinct 
portions  of  his  gray  matter  were  fashioned, 
one  for  Greek,  another  for  Latin,  and  another 
for  French  words,  each  so  divided  from 
each  other  and  from  the  earlier  English  stra- 
tum, that  they  were  respectively  differently 
121 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

affected  by  the  damage  which  involved  this 
word  area. 

We  must  here  pause  in  our  discussion,  be- 
cause we  have  come  to  a  great  principle 
which  goes  to  the  foundation  of  everything 
nervous,  from  the  nervous  system  of  a  polyp 
up  to  the  brain  of  a  philosopher.  That  prin- 
ciple is  this:  That  a  stimulus  to  nervous 
matter  effects  a  change  in  that  matter  by 
calling  forth  a  reaction  in  it.  This  change  may 
be  exceedingly  slight  after  the  first  stimulus, 
but  each  repetition  of  the  stimulus  increases 
the  change,  with  its  following  specific  re- 
action, until  by  constant  repetition  a  perma- 
nent alteration  in  the  nervous  matter  stimu- 
lated occurs,  which  produces  a  fixed  habitual 
way  of  working  in  it.  In  other  words,  the 
nervous  matter  acquires  a  special  way  of 
working,  that  is,  of  function,  by  habit.  We 
will  find  this  principle  constantly  illustrated 
and  operative  in  many  ways  as  we  proceed ; 
but  what  concerns  us  now  is  that  already, 
from  the  facts  which  we  have  been  review- 
122 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

ing,  we  arrive  at  one  of  the  most  important 
of  all  conclusions,  namely,  that  the  gray 
layer  of  our  brains  is  actually  plastic  and 
capable  of  being  fashioned.  It  need  not  be 
left  with  only  the  slender  equipment  of  func- 
tions which  Nature  gives  it  at  birth.  Instead, 
it  can  be  fashioned  artificially,  that  is,  by 
education,  so  that  it  may  acquire  very  many 
new  functions  or  capacities  which  never  come 
by  birth  nor  by  inheritance,  but  which  can  be 
stamped  upon  it  as  so  many  physical  altera- 
tions in  its  proplasmic  substance.  All  this 
is  demonstrated  beyond  cavil,  by  the  textural 
brain  changes  which  the  acquired  and  not 
congenital  function  of  speech  depends  upon. 
This  well-demonstrated  truth  is  of  far- 
reaching  significance,  because  it  gives  an  en- 
tirely new  aspect  to  the  momentous  subject 
of  Education.  Most  persons  conceive  of  edu- 
cation vaguely  as  only  mental,  a  training  of 
the  mind  as  such,  with  small  thought  that  it 
involves  physical  changes  in  the  brain  itself 
ere  it  can  become  real  and  permanent.  But 
123 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

we  have  seen  that  different  forms  of  educa- 
tion, as  perfect  examples  of  education  as  can 
be  named,  are  ultimately  dependent  upon  the 
sound  condition  of  certain  portions  of  the 
gray  matter  which  have  been  ''  educated  " 
for  each  work.  Thus  to  read  music  requires 
a  great  deal  of  education,  and  an  apoplectic 
clot  may  instantly  deprive  a  person  of  a 
laboriously  gained  power  to  read  music,  or 
such  an  accident  may  spoil  every  other  kind 
of  reading,  and  yet  leave  the  music-reading 
place  unharmed.  What  a  burden  of  school 
days  arithmetic  was  every  one  remembers, 
but  in  those  same  days  figures  were  deeply 
engraved  in  some  part  of  the  angular  gyrus, 
so  that,  as  in  the  case  mentioned  on  page  99, 
when  all  other  reading  cells  were  ruined,  they 
remained  as  clear  as  ever  for  their  owner's 
use.  Or,  again,  they  may  be  spoiled  while  the 
reading  of  music  notes  remains.  So  writing, 
which  heretofore  has  been  regarded  as  a 
form  of  Broca's  convolution  work,  because 
usually  when  this  convolution  is  damaged 
124 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

speech  by  mouth  and  speech  by  hand  are  both 
abolished,  very  probably  has  a  center  of  its 
own,  since  cases  are  reported  where  the  in- 
dividual could  not  speak  but  could  write. 
Some  investigators  claim  to  have  identified 
the  writing  center  in  a  part  of  the  motor  area 
above  Broca's  convolution.^ 

From  all  this  it  follows  that  the  brain  must 
be  modified  by  every  process  of  true  special 
education.  A  skilled  violinist  can  play  upon 
his  instrument  as  easily  as  another  can  read 
a  book.  But  how  did  he  acquire  such  an  ac- 
complishment? Without  doubt  by  actually 
fashioning  a  special  violin  center  in  his  brain, 
as  reading  cells  are  fashioned,  by  the  same 
laborious  iteration  of  exercise  of  those  par- 
ticular brain  cells,  until  they  had  to  become 
violin  music  cells.  And  so  with  every  handi- 
craft. Instances  which  prove  this  have  been 
reported  of  mechanics,  who  after  an  apoplec- 
tic attack,  have  had  their  right  hand  sud- 

'Prof.  C.  K.  Mills,  Am.  Jour.  Med.  Sciences,  September, 
1904. 

125 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

denly  but  permanently  lose  its  cunning,  while 
but  little  else  or  nothing  seemed  to  be  lost. 

Meantime  one  fact  about  the  plasticity  of 
the  matter  of  the  human  brain  cortex,  in  , 
other  words,  its  educability,  is  that  this  plas- 
ticity diminishes  progressively  with  age. 
This  is  much  more  evident  with  certain  brain 
functions  than  with  others,  but  is  particu- 
larly the  case  with  the  acquisition  of  lan- 
guage. Children  under  ten  years  of  age 
acquire  languages  by  the  ear  very  easily; 
that  is,  the  gray  matter  of  their  word  centers 
is  very  plastic  and  can  soon  be  fashioned  for 
that  purpose.  But  what  is  gained  easily  is 
lost  easily,  for  if  a  child  at  that  age  be  re- 
moved to  another  country,  where  he  no 
longer  hears  the  language  which  he  has 
learned,  he  generally  forgets  it  totally  in  less 
than  two  years.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
cases  are  reported  of  children  becoming 
aphasic  just  as  adults  do,  by  the  onset  of 
right-sided  paralysis  with  destruction  of  the 
left  Broca's  convolution,  and  yet  they  gradu- 
126 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

ally  leam  to  talk  again  in  much  the  same 
fashion  in  which  they  acquired  speech  at  first. 
That  they  do  this  by  educating  the  centers 
in  the  right  brain  is  proved  by  parallel  cases 
of  the  supervention  afterwards  of  total 
aphasia,  when  left-sided  paralysis  was  added 
to  their  former  right-sided  paralysis,  i.  e.,  by 
a  second  injury  involving  the  right  centers. 

Facts  of  this  kind  have  led  some  writers 
to  draw  the  erroneous  conclusion  that  both 
hemispheres  are  concerned  in  speech,  so  that 
if  the  word  centers  of  one  side  are  injured, 
those  of  the  other  hemisphere  can  come  to  the 
patient 's  help.  The  chief  argument  for  their 
position  is  the  transitory  character  of  loss  of 
speech  in  certain  persons  affected  with 
aphasia.  In  a  few  weeks  they  recover  their 
ability  to  read  or  speak  as  the  case  may  be, 
and  it  is  therefore  argued  that  they  do  so  by 
help  from  the  centers  in  the  unaffected  hemi- 
sphere. But  it  does  not  seem  to  occur  to 
these  reasoners  that,  if  so,  then  every  case  of 
aphasia  from  injury  in  one  hemisphere 
127 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

should  soon  be  recovered  from  by  the  aid  of 
the  other  hemisphere.  But  the  facts  are  that 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases  in  adults,  if  the 
aphasia  does  not  improve  within  a  few 
months,  certainly  within  a  year,  it  never  im- 
proves. My  shrewd  patient  who  retained  his 
arithmetic  so  well  took  many  a  lesson  for  six 
years  with  all  the  assiduity  of  an  industrious 
schoolboy,  and  yet  he  never  got  back  a  word 
in  his  left  angular  gyrus,  nor  in  his  left 
Broca's  convolution,  nor  of  course  in  the 
right  word  centers.  The  most  probable  ex- 
planation of  temporary  aphasia  and  recovery 
or  improvement  from  it  is,  that  the  sudden 
•injury  causes  a  shock,  and  thus  paralysis  of 
the  word  centers,  but  not  complete  disorgan- 
ization of  them,  so  that  in  time  they  regain 
their  functions,  rather  than  that  the  struc- 
tures in  the  other  hemisphere — which  had  not 
for  years  been  taught  a  word  of  English  any 
more  than  of  Chinese — should  in  a  few  weeks 
be  able  to  read  or  speak.  The  older  the 
patient  is,  the  more  hopeless  the  case,  simply 
128 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

because  the  unaffected  word  areas  in  the 
other  hemisphere  have  passed  the  time  of  life 
when  the  gray  matter  is  plastic  enough  to  be 
fashioned  for  any  new  complex  function.  A 
healthy  man  after  forty  scarcely  ever  learns 
a  new  language  well;  after  fifty  such  in- 
stances are  of  the  rarest ;  and  at  seventy  the 
best  that  can  be  expected  is  the  mastery  of  a 
very  few  foreign  phrases,  and  badly  pro- 
nounced at  that.  We  need  not  dwell  further 
on  this  subject,  for  it  is  simply  in  keeping 
with  the  facts  connected  with  any  other  men- 
tal acquirement  which  comes  only  by  educa- 
tion. A  physician  needs  many  years  to  get 
his  education,  and  who  would  expect  him  at 
fifty  or  sixty  to  become  a  civil  engineer? 

Our  study  of  the  cerebral  relations  of  the 
faculty  of  speech  serves  one  purpose  at  least, 
namely,  that  of  revealing  the  great  fact  that 
man  can  be  educated  and  does  educate  him- 
self by  modifying  his  brain  for  that  purpose. 
It  is  this  fact  which  makes  man  what  he  is — 
man.  But  for  the  purpose  of  our  discussion, 
129 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

it  is  so  important  to  be  able  to  recognize 
clearly  how  our  brain  matter  can  be  made  to 
acquire  wholly  new  functions,  and  according 
to  what  fundamental  principles  of  nervous 
physiology  it  does  so,  that  we  must  for  the 
present  diverge  from  the  subject  of  educa- 
tion to  that  of  the  great  laws  governing  all 
nervous  development.  Above  everything 
else  modem  science  is  indebted  to  the  recog- 
nition of  the  principle  of  evolution  as  the 
chief  guide  to  the  understanding  of  the 
deeper  problems  of  life.  By  this  is  meant 
that  all  life  development,  and  certainly  all 
nervous  development,  has  been  orderly; 
which,  in  turn,  means  that  from  the  begin- 
ning, however  low,  to  the  end,  however  high, 
certain  fundamental  laws  continuously  oper- 
ate. We,  therefore,  can  best  unravel  the 
most  complex  forms  by  studying  the  com- 
mencement in  the  simplest  forms;  well  as- 
sured that  if  we  never  drop  the  line  of  con- 
tinuity it  will  be  our  clue  through  the  most 
intricate  passages  of  our  search.  We  will 
130 


THE     FACULTY     OF     SPEECH 

then  find  that  as  we  approach  the  subject  of 
the  brain  of  man  in  its  relation  to  thought 
by  another  route  entirely  than  that  which  we 
have  been  following,  namely,  by  the  route 
which  leads  from  below  upwards,  we  will  ar- 
rive all  the  more  certainly  at  the  conclusions 
to  which  we  have  been  so  far  tending,  with 
all  the  added  confirmation  given  by  the  con- 
vergence of  independent  lines  of  research. 
We  proceed,  therefore,  in  the  next  chapter 
to  the  consideration  of  the  great  laws  which 
preside  over  the  evolution  of  a  nervous 
system. 


031 


CHAPTER   VII 

EVOLUTION   OF  A  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

Certain  fundamental  principles  are  always 
found  underlying  the  essential  phenomena  of 
life,  which,  first  recognizable  in  the  most 
primitive,  prove  afterwards  to  be  just  as 
operative  in  the  most  developed  forms.  The 
greatest  growths,  for  example,  in  either  the 
vegetable  or  animal  kingdoms,  a  towering 
oak  or  an  immense  whale,  have  to  begin  like 
every  other  living  thing  as  veritable  microbes 
in  a  single  microscopic  cell.  The  inner  struc- 
ture of  that  cell  itself  has  certain  invariable 
elements  which  are  equally  present  in  the  first 
vegetable  and  in  the  first  animal  cell.  Thus 
every  species  of  plant  or  animal  contains  in 
its  first  cell  a  fixed,  specific,  and  always  even 
number  of  bodies  called  chromosomes,  be- 
cause they  can  take  a  dye,  and  this  number 
132 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

regularly  recurs  in  all  the  subsequent  cells 
of  the  future  body,  though  they  be  millions. 
Thus  in  the  cells  of  the  mouse,  the  salaman- 
der, the  trout  and  the  lily,  the  chromosomes 
always  number  twenty-four.  In  the  ox,  the 
guinea  pig,  in  man  and  in  the  onion,  the  chro- 
mosomes always  number  sixteen.  In  the 
shark  the  number  is  thirty-six;  in  the  grass- 
hopper twelve,  and  so  on.  It  is  from  such 
facts,  and  others  like  them,  that  the  eminent 
naturalist,  Von  Naegeli,  was  led  to  say  that 
all  life  is  one. 

But  nowhere  is  the  steady  sway  of  funda- 
mental principles  so  illustrated  as  in  the  de- 
velopment of  a  nervous  system.  From  the 
first  beginnings  of  a  nervous  system  in  a 
pohi)  up  to  the  marvelous  brain  of  man,  cer- 
tain primary  laws  are  always  operative,  with- 
out their  ever  being  afterwards  repealed  or 
superseded.  If,  therefore,  we  are  to  under- 
stand the  complex,  we  first  must  study  the 
simplest  organization,  well  assured  that  what 
is  illustrated  by  it  will  continue  recognizable 
133 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

in  every  further  development,  however  great 
or  m&nifold. 

In  studying  the  development  of  a  nervous 
system  from  a  physiological  point  of  view, 
the  first  principle  discernible  as  governing 
that  development  is  what  in  any  other  con- 
nection we  would  term  Discipline,  and  we  can- 
not do  better  than  to  note  how  the  concep- 
tions suggested  by  that  word  are  applicable 
to  our  subject. 

One  of  the  definitions  given  in  Webster  of 
the  word  "  discipline  "  is  ''  subjection  to 
rule,  submission  to  order  and  control,  by 
severe  systematic  training."  The  central 
idea  conveyed  by  this  definition  is  that  dis- 
cipline in  no  way  represses  activity,  but 
directs  it,  by  means  of  regulated  restraint. 
Without  activity  there  could  be  no  discipline, 
for  there  would  be  nothing  then  to  discipline. 
The  word,  therefore,  implies  some  kind  of 
energy,  made  to  subserve  some  purpose 
which  it  would  not  effect  unless  it  be  put 
imder  control. 

134 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

But  in  its  usual  and  most  correct  sense, 
discipline  is  not  a  word  which  can  be  applied 
to  any  inanimate  force.  It  is  an  exclusively 
nervous  system  word.  You  cannot  properly 
say  that  you  will  discipline  your  watch  if  it 
goes  too  fast,  though  you  can  say  that  you 
will  regulate  it.  Nor  can  you  properly  say 
that  you  have  disciplined  the  energy  of 
steam,  when  you  have  made  it  subserve  your 
purpose  by  putting  it  under  control  in  an 
engine.  It  must  always  be  something  nerv- 
ous that  is  disciplined,  so  that  even  in  the 
bodies  of  the  highest  animals,  nothing  but 
that  which  is  nervous  can  be  either  disci- 
plined or  trained. 

This  may  seem  a  singular  statement  to 
some,  as  they  think  of  the  highly  trained  mus- 
cles of  the  legs  of  a  dancer  or  the  fingers  of 
a  pianist.  But  it  is  not  the  muscles  in  these 
cases,  but  the  motor  nerves  of  the  muscles, 
which  have  been  so  wonderfully  disciplined. 
For  neither  of  these  instances  of  supposed 
muscle  training  can  be  compared  for  com- 
135 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

plexity  and  difficulty  with  the  training  of  the 
muscular  organ,  the  tongue,  for  the  move- 
ments necessary  for  articulate  speech.  An 
animated  orator  has  to  make  a  greater  num- 
ber of  rapidly  succeeding  and  yet  perfectly 
adjusted  contractions  and  relaxations  of  his 
muscles  of  articulation,  than  any  famous  per- 
former on  a  musical  instrument.  But  how 
shall  we  explain  the  authenticated  case  of  a 
man  who  could  speak  English,  French  and 
German,  and  who  suddenly  became  unable, 
from  an  attack  of  right  hemiplegia,  or  paraly- 
sis on  the  right  side  of  his  body,  to  make  his 
tongue  work  out  a  word  in  any  one  of  the 
three  languages? 

What  was  the  matter  with  his  tongue? 
Nothing,  as  a  muscle  or  muscular  organ.  In 
fact  it  could  work  as  well  as  ever  in  assist- 
ing mastication  and  swallowing.  Why, 
therefore,  could  it  not  talk?  Solely  because 
its  nervous  direction  for  the  movements  in 
speaking  was  lost,  while  its  nervous  direction 
for  the  movements  of  mastication  was  re- 
136 


NERVOUS      SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

tained.  But  if  its  pair  of  hypoglossal  nerves 
were  also  cut,  just  as  the  accident  which  had 
caused  his  hemiplegia  had  severed  the  con- 
nection with  the  higher  brain  centers,  then 
the  tongue  would  have  failed  equally  to  assist 
in  mastication  and  in  deglutition.  It  is  a 
mistake,  therefore,  to  say  that  muscles,  as 
such,  can  be  taught  to  do  anything.  Nothing 
can  be  taught  except  that  which  is  nervous. 

This  principle  is  far-reaching,  because 
among  other  things  it  introduces  us  to  a  sec- 
ond element  of  fundamental  importance  and 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem alone,  namely,  that  of  gradation  of  rank 
in  work  or  function.  Every  tissue  of  the 
body,  except  the  nervous  tissue,  has  but  one 
dead  level  of  function.  No  one  bone  or  bone 
cell  has  any  higher  rank  than  another  bone  or 
bone  cell,  any  more  than  one  brick  in  a  build- 
ing is  of  a  higher  or  more  important  grade 
than  another  brick,  simply  because  it  is  put 
above  or  below.  And  so  muscles  are  little 
else  than  duplicates  of  each  other  in  function, 
137 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

because,  wherever  they  are,  they  will  be 
found  to  do  but  one  thing,  namely,  contract 
and  relax,  and'uothing  more.  There  is,  there- 
fore, no  such  thing  in  the  muscles  as  one  set 
governing  another  set  by  virtue  of  pure  in- 
nate superiority,  as  the  rider  is  superior  to 
his  horse.  The  horse  might  claim  against  his 
rider  the  greater  importance,  because  he 
does  all  the  going,  and  so  he  might  if  he  were 
like  his  rider,  and  not  a  broken-in  horse.  But 
just  this  difference  meets  us  in  the  case  of 
the  gray  motor  cells  of  the  spinal  cord  and 
the  gray  motor  cells  of  the  surface  of  the 
brain.  The  gray  motor  cells  of  the  cord  do 
all  the  going  of  the  body,  for  even  the  so- 
called  cranial  motor  nerves  really  belong  to 
its  system.  Not  a  muscle  of  the  body  is 
directly  under  the  control  of  those  aristo- 
cratic motor  cells  in  the  topmost  layer  of  the 
brain.  The  cord  might  say  to  the  brain,  '  *  If 
you  wish  to  move  hand  or  foot  you  have  to 
ask  me  to  do  it  for  you. "  "  Very  well,  then, 
do  it,"  is  the  brain's  answer,  **  but  don't  you 
138 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

move  hand  or  foot  till  I  tell  you,  for  since  I 
have  been  evoluted  up  here,  you  have  lost 
your  senseless  independence  and  must  obey 
me.  You  were  the  original  nervous  system, 
to  be  sure,  just  as  there  were  horses  before 
there  were  men  to  ride  them,  but  since  I  have 
come,  I  am  above  and  you  are  below,  and,  as 
it  is,  it  took  me  long  patient  training  and  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  to  break  you  in  to  my 
service,  so  that  you  would  act  according  to 
my  orders.'* 

Rank,  however,  always  implies  an  ultimate 
below,  from  which  everything  starts  as  a 
common  foundation  for  all  subsequent  grada- 
tions, and  so  we  will  begin  now  with  the 
simplest  illustration  of  what  a  nervous  sys- 
tem is.  Eeduced  to  its  most  primitive  form, 
as  it  is  in  the  lowest  animals  which  show  a 
trace  of  a  nervous  system,  it  is  proved  to 
consist  of  three  parts:  (1)  A  nerve  filament 
which  receives  and  transmits  a  stimulus  to 
(2)  a  nerve  center  of  soft  gray  cells  and 
fibers,  which  receive  this  stimulus,  and  which 
139 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

center  reacts  to  this  stimulus,  never  on  the 
nerve  which  brought  it,  but  on  (3)  a  nerve 
filament  which  proceeds  from  the  center. 

Hence  these  two  filaments  are  accordingly 
named,  the  first  Afferent,  because  it  trans- 
mits to,  and  the  second  Efferent,  because  it 
transmits  from,  the  center  some  nervous 
vibration.  One  of  the  commonest  examples 
of  efferent  excitation  is  when  muscles  con- 
tract in  response  to  the  efferent  excitation 
of  their  motor  nerves.  A  fair  illustration  of 
this  mechanism  can  be  found  in  ourselves  in 
the  act  of  winking.  You  can  abolish  the 
power  to  wink  in  one  of  three  ways.  You  may 
do  it,  first,  by  cutting  the  branch  of  the  fifth 
cranial  nerve,  which  transmits  sensation  to 
the  nerve  center  for  winking  at  the  top  of  the 
spinal  cord.  This  center  then  does  not  know 
that  any  winking  ought  to  be  done,  because 
it  depends  for  all  news  of  that  kind  on  the 
sensory  fifth  nerve,  and  that  has  been  cut. 
Or  you  may  abolish  winking  by  cutting  the 
proper  branch  of  the  seventh  pair  of  cranial 
140 


NERVOUS     SfSTEM     EVOLUTION 

nerves;  then,  no  matter  how  the  fifth  nerve 
tells  the  center  that  it  ought  to  wink  hard, 
the  center  answers,  * '  I  cannot  do  it,  because 
the  seventh  nerve,  which  is  the  efferent  or 
motor  nerve  that  works  the  muscles  of  the 
eyelids,  is  cut. ' '  Or  lastly,  with  both  the  fifth 
and  seventh  nerves  intact,  no  winking  will 
occur  because  the  nerve  center  itself  has  been 
deadened  by  some  narcotic  poison. 

From  that  simple  beginning  of  a  real  nerv- 
ous system,  one  can  proceed,  step  by  step, 
with  animals  still  utterly  brainless,  but  which 
have  more  developed  and  complicated  nerv- 
ous systems ;  and  yet  in  them  no  other  mode 
of  working  than  by  afferent,  centric  and  effer- 
ent elements  can  be  discovered.  What  one 
finds  in  these  more  organized  nervous  sys- 
tems is  a  greater  number  of  these  centers, 
each  with  its  afferent  and  efferent  nerves, 
but  with  one  important  addition,  namely,  that 
the  separate  nerve  centers  in  them  are  con- 
nected by  short  nerve  fibers,  which  are  for 
the  purpose  of  enabling  the  centers  to  work 
141 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

together,  something  as  the  jars  of  a  Leyden 
battery  are  connected  by  short  chains. 

A  still  further  development  shows  a  regu- 
lar chain  of  such  nerve  centers  forming  a 
distinctly  ascending  series,  whose  functions 
never  change  or  abolish  the  original  afferent 
and  efferent  mode  of  working,  but  instead 
show  a  more  and  more  perfect  harmony  of 
action  between  the  several  parts.  By  this 
harmony  of  action  new  results  in  movement, 
or  in  the  direction  of  movement,  are  secured, 
which  would  be  impracticable  were  the  sepa- 
rate centers  to  work  independently. 

After  a  certain  number  of  nerve  centers 
have  become  associated,  according  to  the 
scale  of  the  animal's  development,  we  find 
that  the  mutual  co-operation  of  the  centers 
begins  to  be  plainly  more  frequent  in  certain 
directions  than  in  others;  that  is,  that  it 
seems  easier  for  the  centers  to  act  together 
to  execute  some  movements  than  to  execute 
other  movements.  When  we  examine  why 
this  is  so,  it  proves  to  be  because  of  the  more 
142 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

frequent  repetition  of  certain  afferent  stimuli 
than  of  the  other  afferent  stimuli.  Repeat 
one  afferent  excitation  a  hundred  times  and 
another  only  once,  and  the  movements  conse- 
quent on  the  first  are  clearly  much  more 
readily  caused  than  those  following  on  the 
unusual  excitation. 

Therefore  we  have  come  now  to  the  second 
and  most  important  principle  of  all,  in  the 
organization  of  a  nervous  system,  and  which 
we  have  alluded  to  in  the  previous  chapter, 
namely.  Habit.  The  whole  nervous  system 
indeed  in  any  animal,  man  included,  is  first 
organized  by  habit.  However  complex,  for 
example,  be  the  movements  executed  by  mus- 
cles in  order  to  produce  a  given  effect,  e.  g.j 
the  movements  of  the  eyeballs,  some  muscles 
contracting  strongly,  others  most  gently, 
others  again  relaxing  just  enough  to  allow 
their  opponents  to  contract  just  so  much  and 
no  more, — all  these  perfectly  associated 
movements  are  nevertheless  explicable  only 
as  the  slowly  acquired  habits  of  the  centers 
143 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

which  supply  those  muscles  with  their  motor 
nerves.  Hence  the  important  question,  how 
did  these  centers  come  to  acquire  these 
habits?  The  answer  is,  from  a  thousand 
thousand  times  repeated  afferent  impres- 
sions along  the  optic,  or  sense  of  sight  nerve, 
in  habituating  the  efferent  or  motor  nerves 
of  the  eye  muscles  to  act  together. 

Physiologists,  therefore,  when  they  speak 
of  nerve  centers  being  organized  to  perform 
such  and  such  functions,  mean,  not  that  the 
nerve  centers  have  been  created  so  from  the 
beginning,  but  that  habit  has  so  organized 
them. 

But  the  important  principle  to  bear  in  mind 
here  is  that  it  is  the  afferent  segment  of  the 
nervous  system,  or  that  which  is  acted  upon 
by  stimuli  from  the  outside  world,  which  is 
the  ultimate  source  of  this  great  fashioner  of 
the  nervous  system.  Habit,  and  not  the  nerve 
center  itself,  nor  the  efferent  segment.  This 
principle  well  nigh  overshadows  all  others  in 
its  bearing  upon  the  question  of  the  origin 

a44 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

and  development  of  a  nervous  mechanism. 
We  will  gain  no  insight  into  the  deeper  prob- 
lems of  nervons  organization  if  we  relax  our 
hold  on  the  continuous  presence  and  opera- 
tion of  afferent  excitation  all  the  way  from 
the  swaying  arms  of  a  Hydra  Fusca  up  to  the 
successive  trains  of  thought  in  a  human  brain. 
We  thus  speak  of  it  now,  because  further  on 
we  wDl  have  to  refer  repeatedly  to  the  place 
of  the  Afferent  in  discussing  some  subjects, 
second  to  none  in  importance,  about  our  own 
mental  operations.  Here,  however,  we  start 
with  the  fact  that  it  is  the  Afferent  only 
which  connects  with  the  Environment.  Upon 
the  Afferent  the  nerve  center  wholly  depends, 
not  only  for  the  primary  source  of  its  activ- 
ity, but  for  the  organization  of  that  activity 
so  that  it  can  ever  become  uniform.  The  re- 
action of  a  nerve  center  to  an  afferent  stimu- 
lus has  been  likened  to  an  explosion  of  energy 
-set  free  by  the  lighted  fuse  of  the  Afferent. 
But  that  explosion  would  be  an  explosion  and 
nothing  more,  but  for  that  one  great  fact 
145 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

about  the  afferent  nerve  itself,  namely,  that 
it  always  causes  the  explosion  to  be  in  one 
direction  only.  Over  and  over  again  it  does 
exactly  the  same  thing  as  at  first,  and  thus 
trains  the  nerve  center  to  react  only  in  one 
fashion. 

All  this  is  due  to  the  great  law  that  an 
afferent  nerve  never  varies  in  what  it  does. 
As  Professor  Sherrington  expresses  it,  the 
afferent  nerve,^  "extending  from  the  recep- 
tive surface  to  the  central  nervous  organ, 
forms  the  sole  avenue  which  impulses  gener- 
ated at  its  receptive  point  can  use.  It  con- 
stitutes a  private  path  exclusive  to  the 
impulses  generated  at  its  own  receptive 
points,  and  other  receptive  points  than  its 
own  cannot  receive  it.'*  The  nerve  centers, 
therefore,  become  accustomed  to  react  in  the 
same  way  to  afferent  stimuli,  because  these 
stimuli  are  never  mixed  or  confused  with 
others. 

*  Presidential  Address,  Section  of  Phy8iob»gy,  Brit.  Assoo. 
Science,  1904. 

146 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

It  is  quite  otherwise  with  either  a  single  ef- 
ferent nerve,  or  with  any  organized  nervous 
path  for  efferent  impulses,  for  any  single  one 
of  these  may  be  used  in  response  to  a  great 
variety  of  afferent  stimuli.  Thus  the  act  of 
coughing  is  executed  by  a  whole  group  of 
motor  nerves  acting  together  in  a  regular 
way.  But  this  same  efferent  path  for  cough- 
ing may  be  used  by  a  number  of  very  different 
afferent  stimuli  starting  from  the  nose,  phar- 
ynx, larynx,  bronchi,  pleura,  stomach,  brain 
or  other  organs,  so  that  not  uncommonly  it 
requires  some  search  to  find  what  the  particu- 
lar cause  of  the  cough  is.  It  may  be  a  bean  in 
a  child 's  ear,  or  a  worm  in  the  intestine.  An 
afferent  stimulus,  on  the  other  hand,  never 
breaks  its  rule  of  using  none  but  its  own  path 
of  excitation,  and  hence  it  is  the  source  of 
sources  of  this  great  factor.  Habit,  in  nervous 
evolution. 

Another  peculiarity  of  afferent  excitation, 
to  which  we  shall  have  to  allude  again  in  the 
very  highest  connection,  namely,  in  the  suc- 
cession of  ideas  in  human  thinking,  is  that 
147 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

an  afferent  stimulus,  though  always  itself 
single,  once  it  excites  an  efferent  act  in  a 
nerve  center,  may  have  that  excitation 
spread  from  center  to  center,  as  it  were,  like 
so  many  successive  efferent  explosions. 
Thus  a  sneeze  is  always  due  to  the  excitation 
of  a  minute  twig  in  the  sensory  or  afferent 
nerve  of  the  nostril,  which  then  transmits  it 
to  an  efferent  center  in  the  medulla  oblon- 
gata at  the  top  of  the  spinal  cord.  This  effer- 
ent center  then  sends  this  excitation  to  fifty- 
five  pairs  of  efferent  centers  to  cause  them 
to  call  their  one  hundred  and  ten  muscles 
into  one  combined  and  well-regulated  sneeze 
performance.^ 

^  A  number  of  writers  on  nervous  disorders  seem  to  re- 
gard an  attack  of  epilepsy  as  due  to  a  spontaneous  discharge 
of  nervous  energy  in  some  cortical  brain  centers,  the  motor 
area  being  especially  involved  when  the  attack  is  accompa- 
nied by  convulsions.  As  no  other  examples  of  spontaneous 
efferent  actions  can  be  cited,  but  on  the  contrary,  such  al- 
ways follow  upon  a  preceding  afferent  stimulus,  I  would  as- 
cribe the  true  beginning  of  an  epileptic  paroxysm,  whatever 
its  form,  to  an  abnormal  afferent  excitation.  This  view  of 
the  nature  of  this  serious  nervous  disease  has  an  important 
bearing  upon  its  treatment,  as  I  explain  in  an  article  on  the 
Pathology  and  Treatment  of  Epilepsy  in  the  N.  Y.  Med. 
Journal,  Nov.  8  and  15,  1902. 

148 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

All  that  we  have  said  heretofore  finds  a 
complete  illustration  in  the  structure  and 
functions  of  the  spinal  cord  in  all  verte- 
brates. The  spinal  cord,  which  is  the  origi- 
nal nervous  system  in  every  vertebrate,  as  it 
is  the  first  to  appear  in  its  embryonic  devel- 
opment, consists  of  a  great  number  of  nerve 
centers,  one  above  the  other,  all  receiving 
their  afferent  and  giving  off  their  efferent 
nerves  on  each  side,  and  as  constantly  joined 
together  by  tracts  of  communicating  fibers, 
until  finally  the  whole  muscular  system  of  the 
body  is  found  to  be  under  its  exclusive  con- 
trol. As  remarked  before,  no  primary  law 
or  function  in  the  nervous  system  is  ever 
superseded  by  any  later  developments;  and 
so,  however  great  be  the  additions  afterwards 
of  brain  centers  or  functions,  yet  the  spinal 
nerve  centers  retain  all  their  original  pre- 
rogatives, quite  as  much  in  man  as  in  any  of 
the  rest  of  the  animal  world.  If,  as  remarked 
above,  you  wish  to  show  the  cunning  of  your 
right  hand  in  any  work  of  skill,  or  the  fluency 
149 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

of  your  speech  with  your  tongue,  your  de- 
signing and  talking  brain  has  to  ask  the 
spinal  nerve  centers  for  the  muscles  of  the 
hand  and  for  those  of  the  tongue  to  direct 
those  muscles  to  do  the  work  for  it. 

Meanwhile  this  wonderfully  organizing 
power  of  afferent  habit  works  out  results  in 
creating  special  functions  or  modes  of  work- 
ing in  the  spinal  cord  which  actually  startle 
us  with  their  close  resemblance  to  what  we 
are  accustomed  to  regard  as  manifestations 
of  design  or  purpose.  Thus  if  a  vigorous 
frog  be  suddenly  decapitated  with  a  sharp 
knife,  and  his  headless  body  be  put  on  a  plate, 
it  will  forthwith  jump  up  and  assume  on  the 
plate  a  perfectly  natural,  if  not  somewhat 
impertinent  attitude.  If  now  a  small  drop 
of  acetic  acid  is  applied  on  the  frog's  side, 
as  soon  as  it  begins  to  irritate  the  skin,  the 
headless  frog  gravely  and  deliberately  raises 
his  hind  leg  and  brings  up  his  foot  to  scratch 
off  the  acid.  If  more  acid  be  applied,  he 
brings  down  the  arm  to  help  scratch  the  same 
150 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

spot;  and  if  the  irritation  continues,  he  be- 
gins to  lose  balance  by  trying  to  bring  up  the 
other  leg  also ;  until  at  last,  as  if  the  itching 
had  become  intolerable,  he  makes  a  most 
natural  dive  for  the  floor. 

An  amusing  illustration  of  this  kind  once 
occurred  to  me  in  my  college  days,  while  fish- 
ing in  a  western  stream  with  a  classmate.  My 
companion's  luck  had  been  poor,  when  at  a 
deep,  promising  pool  he  became  greatly  ex- 
cited by  a  powerful  bite,  with  a  pull  which 
bent  his  pole  nearly  double,  only  to  find  at 
last  that  he  was  drawing  up  a  great  mud 
turtle  which  had  swallowed  the  hook  beyond 
mistake.  In  vain  my  friend  tried  to  per- 
suade the  turtle  when  he  landed  him  to  put 
his  head  out  from  under  his  shell  till  he  could 
get  the  hook  free.  Finally,  as  he  had  no 
other  hook,  my  friend  hung  the  turtle  over 
a  branch  and  sawed  his  head  off  with  his 
jack-knife.  Down  at  last  dropped  the  tur- 
tle's headless  body,  when  to  our  astonish- 
ment it  straightway  walked  some  two  yards 
151 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

right  into  the  water  and  dove  off  into  the 
deep  pool,  just  as  if  the  creature  kept  an 
extra  head  under  its  shell  to  put  on  in  an 
emergency ! 

In  animals  below  the  vertebrates,  the  nerv- 
ous system  being  composed  of  fewer  series  of 
centers,  and  all  acting  alike  to  their  afferent 
stimuli,  they  proceed  with  such  uniform  and 
rigid  habits  of  action  that,  like  other  ex- 
amples of  unmitigated  consistency,  it  occa- 
sionally leads  to  inconvenient  results.  While 
sojourning  in  Syria  I  was  told  that  the  whole 
country  round  Mt.  Lebanon  was  dismayed 
one  year  by  the  news  that  a  vast  army  of 
marching  locusts  was  coming  from  the  east- 
em  desert.  The  governor  of  the  district 
ordered  a  regiment  of  soldiers  to  aid  the  peo- 
ple to  construct  a  great  rampart  of  heath 
bushes  to  be  set  on  fire  as  the  locusts  came 
up  to  it,  hoping  thus  to  save  the  gardens 
of  Beyrout.  These  locusts  always  hopped 
straight  ahead,  deviating  neither  to  the 
right  nor  left,  and  on  coming  to  a  house 
went  up  its  stone  walls,  over  it  and  down  it, 
152 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

as  if  it  were  a  level  place,  and  in  such  incon- 
ceivable numbers  that  an  American  resident 
described  the  noise  of  the  great  host  passing 
over  the  roof  as  like  to  that  of  a  tremendous 
hailstorm.  At  every  green  leaf  on  the  way 
each  took  a  bite,  and  then  went  on  for  the 
next  one  to  take  his  bite,  until  in  an  incredi- 
bly short  time  not  a  green  thing  could  be 
seen.  When  they  reached  the  prepared 
heaps  of  heath  and  these  were  set  on  fire, 
the  locusts  marched  on  without  pausing,  until 
in  a  brief  time  they  put  the  bonfires  com- 
pletely out.  As  the  sea  was  not  far  off  every- 
body hoped  that  they  would  take  to  surf 
bathing.  And  so  they  did.  Just  as  certain 
injurious  political  crowds  among  us  can 
always  be  depended  upon  to  march  up  to  the 
polls  and  vote  the  straight  ticket,  when  the 
vanguard  reached  the  waves,  like  all  good 
true  locusts,  in  they  hopped,  followed  by  all 
the  rest,  till  the  billows  seemed  to  roll  only 
grasshoppers;  nor  did  the  scene  end  until 
the  last  of  the  rear  guard,  faithful  to  the 
153 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

great  law  of  Afferent,  Centric  and  Efferent, 
had  skipped  over  the  heaps  of  his  dead  com- 
rades to  make  his  last  jump  into  the  blue 
waters  of  the  Mediterranean. 

In  structure  the  spinal  cord  has  its  centers 
located  within,  and  like  all  ganglionic  matter 
they  are  of  a  gray  color.  There  is  a  special 
arrangement,  however,  of  its  cells  according 
as  they  subserve  an  afferent  or  efferent  func- 
tion, the  afferent  cells,  of  a  more  or  less 
rounded  shape,  being  grouped  more  toward 
the  posterior  segment  of  the  cord  where  the 
afferent  nerves  enter,  and  the  cells  with 
efferent  functions,  usually  larger  and  of  a 
stellate  shape,  being  grouped  toward  the  an- 
terior segment  whence  the  motor  nerves 
emerge.  At  the  top  of  the  spinal  cord,  as 
it  enters  the  skull,  is  developed  the  final 
supreme  center  of  the  entire  system — the 
Medulla  Oblongata — that  fit  and  most  re- 
sponsible ruler  of  the  whole  wonderful  and 
beautifully  regulated  spinal  mechanism, — 
that  center  in  which  a  small  injury  would 
154 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

threaten  life  more  than  it  would  in  the  brain, 
as  it  may  cause  instant  death,  for  the  medulla 
holds  the  reins  of  the  pulse  and  of  the  breath 
in  its  hands,  while  at  the  same  time  it  acts 
as  the  intermediary  between  the  various  re- 
gions of  the  brain  above  and  those  of  the 
spinal  cord  beneath. 

But  the  chief  feature  about  this  remarka- 
ble nervous  apparatus,  the  spinal  cord,  is 
that  however  intricate  its  adjustments  be,  so 
that  by  it  the  most  complicated  and  combined 
movements  are  executed,  enough  as  we  have 
seen  to  wear  all  the  aspects  of  designed  or 
purposive  muscular  acts,  yet  from  first  to 
last  its  operations  are  purely  automatic. 
This  is  because  its  workings  are  all  organized 
by  the  steady,  unvarying  operation  of  affer- 
ent stimulus.  Without  that  there  would  be 
no  centric  change,  and  without  centric  change 
there  would  be  no  efferent  impulse.  Origi- 
nally nothing  could  be  more  haphazard  than 
afferent  stimuli,  and  thus  at  first  the  centric 
change  would  be  correspondingly  so;  but 
155 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

when  the  same  afferent  stimulus  recurs  over 
and  over  again,  the  centric  change  becomes 
fixed  by  this  repetition,  and  the  efferent  im- 
pulse follows  suit,  till  a  special  mode  of 
working,  or,  in  other  words,  a  special  nerve 
function  is  established.  A  watch  or  a  clock, 
therefore,  could  not  be  a  more  automatic 
mechanism  than  is  a  spinal  nerve  center. 

The  desirability  of  distinctly  recognizing 
the  part  taken  by  afferent  habit  in  the  organ- 
ization of  nervous  functions  leads  me,  at  the 
risk  of  being  tedious,  to  cite  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  kind.  The  nervous  mechanism  of 
the  act  of  breathing  is  a  primary  example  of 
such  organization.  The  afferent  stimulus  in 
the  form  of  the  sensation  of  the  want  of  air, 
coming  up  by  the  afferent  vagus  nerve,  leads 
to  the  successive  efferent  muscular  move- 
ments of  inspiration,  and  then  of  expiration, 
with  all  the  regularity  of  the  swing  of  a  pen- 
dulum. Now  let  the  habit  of  checking  the  re- 
turn swing  of  the  pendulum  during  expira- 
tion be  contracted,  especially  in  childhood, 
156 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

the  habit-forming  age,  by  prolonged  cough- 
ing, as  in  whooping  cough  or  in  measles,  and 
there  is  danger  of  this  bad  habit  in  breathing 
lasting  for  years,  or  for  life,  in  the  form  of 
the  wretched  disease,  asthma.  It  should  be 
noted  that  the  act  of  coughing  always  occurs 
in  expiration,  thus  interrupting  the  regular 
rhythm  of  expiration  quickly  following  in- 
spiration. In  asthma,  the  air  enters  easily 
in  inspiration,  but  is  checked  in  expiration, 
so  that  this  latter,  instead  of  being  equal  to 
inspiration,  as  in  health,  may  in  asthma  be 
five  times  as  long.  Once  the  normal  habits  of 
breathing  become  deranged,  the  respiratory 
center  may  be  at  the  mercy  of  a  great  variety 
of  afferent  stimuli,  which  are  never  perceived 
in  health.  Thus  one  form  of  asthma  is  called 
**  cat  asthma,"  because  the  mere  entrance  of 
a  cat  into  the  room  will  start  the  patient 
wheezing,  though  wholly  ignorant  that  the 
animal  is  near.  The  son  of  a  medical  ac- 
quaintance of  mine  knew  immediately  by  his 
breathing  that  some  buckwheat  was  in  the 
157 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

house,  though  he  was  in  his  own  room  on  the 
top  floor,  and  it  was  found  that  the  cook  had 
surreptitiously  brought  the  forbidden  article 
into  the  kitchen  and  was  mixing  it  with  water 
to  make  cakes  for  herself.  I  have  had  more 
than  one  patient  who  could  sleep  well  in  New 
York,  but  who  would  be  sure  to  be  awakened 
by  an  attack  of  asthma  if  they  spent  a  night 
in  Brooklyn  across  the  East  River.  Other 
asthmatics  have  their  attacks  induced  by  the 
most  trivial  derangements  of  digestion,  and 
but  few  of  them  can  safely  eat  a  hearty  meal 
at  night.  Such  whimsicalities  of  this  com- 
plaint might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  only 
to  illustrate  that  there  is  always  risk  in  in- 
terfering with  old  normal  nervous  habits. 
The  constant  coughing  of  chronic  bronchitis 
will  frequently  induce  its  form  of  asthma  in 
adults ;  which,  however,  generally  subsides  if 
the  bronchitis  be  cured. 

But  it  is  in  the  medulla  that  we  meet  with 
special   illustrations   of  a  third  great  law 
of  nervous  development.     To  return  for  a 
158 


NERVOUS      SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

moment  to  our  first  principle  of  discipline. 
That  principle,  whether  applied  in  armies  or 
in  anything  else,  implies  some  source  or 
sources  of  authoritative  restraint,  generally 
a  regular  hierarchy  of  commanders,  one  rank- 
ing the  other.  Nowhere  in  any  instance  is 
this  great  principle  of  discipline  so  impres- 
sively demonstrated  as  in  the  army,  so  to 
call  them,  of  active  centers  in  the  nervous  sys- 
tems of  the  higher  animals.  A  constantly  re- 
curring word  in  books  on  nervous  physiology 
is  *'  Inhibition,"  as  descriptive  of  the  work- 
ings of  certain  nerves  or  nerve  centers. 

One  example  will  illustrate  what  this  word 
refers  to.  By  stimulating  with  an  electric 
current  one  nerve  which  comes  down  from 
the  medulla  to  the  heart,  you  make  the  latter 
beat  more  powerfully  and  rapidly.  By  stimu- 
lating another  nerve  which  also  descends  from 
the  medulla  to  the  heart,  that  organ  at  once 
begins  to  beat  more  slowly;  stimulate  that 
nerve  still  further  and  the  heart  beats  very 
slowly ;  still  more  again  and  it  comes  to  a  full 
159 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

stop.  Now  cut  that  same  nerve  and  the  heart 
bounds  off  to  the  most  rapid,  tumultuous 
beating.  As  an  eminent  physiologist  char- 
acterizes it:  This  nerve  bridles  the  heart, 
for  when  it  is  severed  the  heart  behaves  like 
a  horse  who  throws  its  rider  and  straightway 
takes  to  racing.  For  this  nerve  is  the  in- 
hibitory or  governing  nerve  of  the  heart,  that 
nerve  which  makes  the  heart  a  strong  heart 
by  governing  it.  If  you  suddenly  tell  a  man 
a  dreadful  piece  of  news,  and  his  pulse 
scarcely  quickens  or  quivers,  is  he  a  weak 
man  or  has  he  a  weak  heart?  Another  man 
sees  a  street  boy  preparing  to  snowball  him, 
and  at  once  his  pulse  runs  up  to  120.  What 
is  the  difference  between  these  two  men? 
The  difference  lies  in  the  cardiac  branches 
of  their  vagi  nerves. 

Now  as  we  investigate  the  functions  of 
this  great  law  of  inhibition  in  the  nervous 
system,  we  find  that  as  higher  centers  are  de- 
veloped in  the  series,  their  influence  is  shown 
not  only  in  new  powers  or  functions  super- 
160 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

added  to  the  older  ones,  but  that  they  con- 
stantly inhibit,  or,  in  other  words,  control 
the  action  of  the  lower  centers.  Thus  in  the 
frog  a  mass  of  centers  called  the  optic  lobes 
are  developed  just  above  the  medulla.  Now 
as  long  as  these  lobes  are  connected  with  the 
spinal  cord,  you  may  stimulate  the  afferent 
spinal  nerves  of  the  frog,  and  but  little  or 
no  reflex  movement  will  result.  Cut,  how- 
ever, the  connecting  tract,  and  thus  free  the 
cord  from  the  control  of  these  higher  centers, 
and  the  slightest  tickling  of  the  skin  will 
then  make  the  frog  kick  actively. 

After  we  pass  the  medulla  oblongata,  we 
find  ourselves  proceeding  along  large  tracts 
of  nerve  fibers  which  soon  present  us  with 
a  series  of  considerable  swellings  along  their 
course,  and  which  are  found  to  be  altogether 
new  or  differently  constructed  masses  of  gray 
matter,  or  ganglia  as  they  are  called.  These 
new  ganglia  prove  to  be  chiefly  portentous 
developments  of  the  afferent  system,  caus- 
ing in  fact  the  afferent  segment  to  take  the 
161 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

lead  in  nervous  life,  for  they  are  no  less  than 
the  centers  of  the  special  senses  of  sight, 
smell  and  hearing,  larger  or  smaller  accord- 
ing to  the  needs  of  the  animal  for  each  sense 
respectively. 

Now  when  we  use  the  term  special  senses, 
we  mean  a  form  of  sensation.  But  what  is 
sensation  itself?  Nobody  knows.  All  defini- 
tions of  sensation  amount  to  saying  that  sen- 
sation is  sensation,  for  to  call  it  an  act  of  the 
consciousness  is,  when  translated  into  Anglo- 
Saxon,  to  announce  that  the  thing  which 
feels,  feels.  This  Something  called  Con- 
sciousness makes  its  first  appearance  in  ver- 
tebrates after  the  whole  mechanism  of  the 
spinal  cord  and  medulla  has  been  completed, 
and  the  lower  vertebrates  seem  to  need  but 
little  else  for  their  world  than  these  special 
sense  ganglia,  which  are  proportionately  de- 
veloped in  them  according  to  their  life  habits. 
However  even  in  them  two  other  swellings 
appear,  which  are  relatively  wonderfully 
small  in  many  of  these  animals  considerizig 
162 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

their  great  import,  as  tliey  are  no  less  than 
the  beginnings  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres, 
or  what  we  call  the  brain  in  ourselves. 

The  accompanying  figures  tell  the  story  of 
their  evolution.     In  Figure  1  we  have  the 


Fio.  1 — ^The  Brain  of  a  Lamprey. 

sensory  ganglia  and  the  brain  of  a  lamprey, 
a  small  fish  often  mistaken  for  an  eel  from 
his  form.  Those  rounded  masses  01,  repre- 
sent his  olfactory  lobes,  for  his  habits  re- 
quire him  to  be  good  at  smelling.  Then  the 
163 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

two  large  swellings  below  are  his  optic  lobes, 
while  those  two  insignificant  spheres  be- 
tween, marked  C,  are  his  cerebral  lobes  or 


Fio.  2 — Brain  of  a  Carp. 

brains,  or  all  that  he  has  to  cogitate  with. 
Fig.  2  shows  the  sensory  and  intellectual  ap- 
paratus of  a  carp.  He  does  not  smell  at  all, 
so  he  has  no  olfactory  lobes,  but  his  optic 
lobes  are  large  compared  with  his  brain  or 
mental  equipment.  Fig.  3  represents  the  ap- 
paratus of  that  old  friend  of  the  physiolo- 
164 


NERVOUS      SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

gist,  the  poor  frog,  in  which  his  mechanism 
for  thinking,  though  larger  than  that  of 
fishes,  is  scarcely  larger  than  his  optic  lobes. 


m 


Fig.  3 — ^Brain  of  a  Frog. 

M,  in  each  of  these  figures  represents  the 
medulla. 

In  some  fishes,  such  as  the  carp,  when  the 
ganglia  which  correspond  to  the  cerebral 
hemispheres  are  experimentally  removed, 
they  do  not  seem  to  mind  it  at  all,  for  even 
then  there  is  little,  if  anjiihing,  to  distinguish 
165 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

them  from  perfectly  normal  animals.  They 
maintain  their  natural  attitude,  and  use  their 
tails  and  fins  in  swimming  with  the  same 
vigor  and  precision  as  before.  They  not  only 
see  but  are  able  to  find  their  food.  If  worms 
are  thrown  into  the  water  where  they  are 
swimming,  they  immediately  pounce  upon 
them.  If  a  piece  of  string  similar  in  size  to 
a  worm  is  thrown  in,  they  are  able  to  detect 
the  difference,  and  they  drop  it  after  having 
seized  it.  They  even,  to  some  extent,  dis- 
tinguish colors,  for  when  some  red  and  some 
white  wafers  are  thrown  into  the  water,  the 
fish  almost  invariably  select  the  red  in  pref- 
erence to  the  white. 

It  is  much  the  same  with  the  frog.  If  care 
be  taken  to  keep  the  frogs  alive  after  the  re- 
moval of  their  cerebral  lobes  until  they  have 
quite  recovered  from  the  injury,  brainless 
frogs  will  behave  just  like  full-brained  frogs 
under  like  circumstances.  They  will  crawl 
under  stones,  or  bury  themselves  in  the  earth 
at  the  beginning  of  winter,  and  after  the 
166 


NERVOUS      SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

period  of  hibernation  is  over,  they  will  come 
out  and  diligently  catch  the  flies  which  are 
buzzing  about  in  the  vessels  in  which  they 
are  kept. 
But  Fig.  4,  which  shows  the  brain  of  a 


Fig.  4 — Brain  of  a  Pigeon. 

pigeon,  illustrates  how  much  higher  in  the 
scale  birds  are  than  fishes  and  amphibia. 
The  original  basal  ganglia  which  we  have 
been  considering,  are  beginning  now  to  be 
completely   overshadowed   by   the   cerebral 

xm 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

lobes,  and  hence  after  their  removal,  birds 
show  much  greater  alterations  in  their  be- 
havior. Memory  and  volition  seem  annihi- 
lated, and  the  birds  do  not  seek  their  food. 
But  if  the  optic  lobes  are  uninjured,  the  bird 
will  walk  round  the  room,  avoiding  obstacles ; 
it  will  fly  from  one  place  and  alight  securely 
on  another,  always  preferring  a  perch  to  the 
floor;  and  if  placed  on  a  swinging  cord,  it 
balances  itself  perfectly  with  the  to  and  fro 
movements.  If  placed  in  a  special  attitude, 
it  ruffles  its  feathers  and  shows  fight,  thus 
illustrating  that  pugnacity  antedates  brains, 
or,  as  physiologists  express  it,  belongs  to  a 
lower  level. 

In  the  ascent  from  birds  to  mammals,  the 
development  of  the  cerebral  ganglia  or  lobes 
grows  from  mere  bulbous  swellings  into 
great  masses  which  cover  more  and  more  the 
sensory  ganglia,  until  in  the  monkey  these 
are  wholly  buried  under  their  mass.  In  man 
these  original  centers  at  the  base  of  the  skull 
are  relatively  so  insignificant,  that  we  are 
168 


NERVOUS     SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

accustomed  to  leave  them  out  of  considera- 
tion, and  to  speak  of  his  cerebral  hemi- 
spheres as  his  brain. 

As  regards  the  functions  of  the  brain  and 
their  relations,  the  first  conclusion  we  come 
to  is  that  an  unmistakable  promotion,  so  to 
speak,  has  occurred  in  the  mammalian  brain 
of  the  great  functions  of  sensation,  conscious- 
ness and  the  power  of  directing  movement, 
from  the  basal  ganglia  of  fishes,  amphibia 
and  birds  up  to  the  great  cerebral  ganglia 
above.  Remove  these  from  a  mammal,  and 
it  is  then  far  from  acting  as  if  it  still  had  the 
same  degree  of  consciousness  or  power  of 
movement  left  which  those  lower  in  the  scale 
possess. 

This  does  not  prove  that  the  cerebral  gan- 
glia have  entirely  superseded  the  original 
basal  ganglia,  for  facts  of  disease  at  the  base 
of  the  brain  in  man  show  that  even  in  him, 
these  original  nerve  centers  still  hold  much 
of  their  old  relations.  The  case  instead  is 
like  the  history  of  a  prosperous  firm  which 
169 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

began  business  in  a  very  small  way  and  in 
humble  quarters,  and  then  when  it  had 
branched  out  to  an  undreamed  of  extent 
from  its  lowly  start,  the  highly  trained  heads 
of  the  company  are  found  to  have  moved  up 
to  large  and  conomodious  apartments  on  the 
upper  floors,  while  the  original  routine  work 
is  yet  done,  as  of  old,  in  the  storeys  below. 
Simple,  routine  work  is  quite  enough  now  for 
the  basal  ganglia,  while  consciousness  is 
needed  to  go  up  higher  where  the  far  wider 
operations  of  mind  have  to  be  carried  on. 
Nevertheless  it  is  the  same  old  firm,  for  we 
will  find  that  its  principles  and  modes  of 
doing  business  by  the  heads  of  the  establish- 
ment have  not  changed,  though  they  are  now 
handling  millions  where  they  used  only  to 
deal  with  a  few  dollars. 

We  may  not  imnaturally  think  that  in  our- 
selves, the  far  range  of  our  memories,  imagi- 
nations, feelings  and  ideas  must  have  a  very 
different  genesis  and  be  according  to  very 
different  laws  from  the  simple  unconscious 
170 


NERVOUS      SYSTEM     EVOLUTION 

functions  of  the  first  example  of  a  nervous 
system  wliicli  we  have  described.  But  a  little 
attention  to  the  source  and  sequence  of  our 
ideas,  even  when  taking  their  widest  sweep, 
will  show  a  quite  unmistakable  correspond- 
ence to  the  old  original  methods  of  nervous 
work. 

Thus  even  with  that  unique  mental  faculty 
of  speech,  which  we  have  been  considering  at 
length,  we  are  met  at  the  outset  with  our 
old  familiar  terms  Afferent  and  Efferent,  as 
plainly  as  in  any  function  of  the  spinal  cord. 
Our  speech  consists  of  words  which  come  to 
us  through  the  afferent  channels  of  the  ear 
and  of  the  eye,  and  of  words  which  go  from 
us  by  the  efferent  Broca  convolution.  More- 
over, in  the  order  of  time,  the  afferent  pre- 
ceded and  created  the  efferent,  for  the  child 
first  heard  the  words  addressed  to  its  ear, 
and  then  slowly  taught  Broca 's  convolution 
to  respond;  slowly,  for  it  evidently  under- 
stands words  some  time  before  it  can  learn  to 
stammer  them  on  its  tongue. 
171 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

But  likewise  many  of  the  longest  and  most 
intricate  workings  of  our  minds  in  acts  of 
thinking,  can  often  be  traced  to  a  single 
afferent  excitation  which  was  the  origin  of 
the  whole  process.  One  familiar  illustration 
will  suffice.  While  you  are  in  your  reclining 
chair,  perhaps  with  your  eyes  shut,  some 
friend  casually  plays  on  the  piano  in  the  ad- 
joining room  an  old  well-known  tune,  which 
you  were  fond  of  in  your  father's  house  years 
gone  by.  A  throng  of  memories  of  long  ago, 
of  faces  not  seen  for  years,  of  some  that  will 
never  be  seen  here  again,  pictures  of  places 
and  scenes,  with  their  events  and  experi- 
ences, all  crowd  upon  you  till  you  are  star- 
tled by  tears  welling  up  in  your  eyes.  You 
spring  up  at  finding  yourself  so  deeply 
moved  by — what?  By  that  single  afferent 
impression  coming  through  the  auditory 
nerve! 

In  fact  any  analysis  of  our  ordinary  men- 
tal processes,  made  by  retracing  step  by 
step  how  one  idea  has  been  suggested  by  a 
172 


NERVOUS      SY^STEM      EVOLUTION 

previous  idea,  and  that  in  turn  by  another, 
will  usually  bring  us  at  last  to  some  one 
afferent  excitation  coming  to  us  from  our 
outside  world.  That  is  just  the  old  way  in 
which  the  Afferent  works,  as  we  showed,  on 
page  148,  how  in  the  spinal  mechanism  it  exe- 
cutes a  sneeze.  We  need  not  be  metaphysi- 
cians to  make  this  discovery,  that  our  think- 
ing so  often  begins  first  with  some  sensation 
then  experienced.  Nor  does  it  take  long  to 
find  that  many  of  our  trains  of  thought,  as 
they  are  well  termed,  are  somehow  habitual 
to  us,  as  if  we  have  fallen  into  the  way  of 
thinking  thus.  In  other  words,  our  old 
friend,  Habit,  whom  we  have  seen  to  be  such 
a  multiform  organizer  of  spinal  ganglia  and 
spinal  functions,  seems  to  have  organized 
our  brains  also!  He  has  thousands  of  pri- 
vate afferent  wires  with  which  to  reach  our 
consciousness  from  every  part  of  our  bodies, 
each  one  of  which  can  start  a  sensation,  and 
that  an  idea,  until  it  seems  difficult  to  deny 
that  our  thoughts  are  but  the  products  of 
173 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

this  great  afferent  creator  of  nervous  opera- 
tions. 

Some  may  infer  from  these  considerations 
that  we  have  come  to  the  end,  that  is,  that 
we  need  not  go  further  in  explaining  the 
"  how  "  of  our  thinking  selves.  Many,  in- 
deed, have  thought  so,  and  have  maintained 
that  we  men  and  women  are  mentally  the  re- 
sults of  our  environment,  that  is,  of  our  out- 
side world  creating  us  by  its  afferent  excita- 
tions. The  nervous  system  of  a  polyp  is  cer- 
tainly a  pure  mechanism,  a  most  mechanical 
affair,  but  the  principles  of  its  mechanism 
continue  just  the  same  through  every  step 
in  the  long  series  of  Evolution,  till  at  last 
we  find  those  virtually  mechanical  principles 
accounting  for — Man ! 

But  in  our  next  chapter  we  will  find  our- 
selves face  to  face  with  an  entirely  new  fash- 
ioner of  nervous  matter,  one  to  whom  brain 
protoplasm  is  as  clay  to  the  potter. 


174 


CHAPTEE   VIII 

THE  BRAIN  AND  PERSONALITY 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  seen  that 
the  evolution  of  a  nervous  system  is  guided 
by  a  great  principle,  which  on  the  last  analy- 
sis may  be  regarded  as  a  specific  nervous  re- 
action to  environment.  By  means  of  the  un- 
deviating  inflow  along  the  afferent  channels 
of  stimuli  from  the  outer  world  or  environ- 
ment, the  receptive  nerve  elements  are 
affected  till  they  in  turn  excite  an  outflow 
along  the  efferent  channel;  and  when  the 
same  afferent  stimulus  is  repeated  often 
enough,  the  consequent  efferent  effect  be- 
comes so  uniform  as  to  constitute  a  special 
mode  of  nervous  action,  or,  in  other  words, 
a  nervous  function.  It  is  thus  that  this  affer- 
ent agency  coming  from  without  continu- 
ously proceeds,  fashioning  one  system  of 
175 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

nervous  centers  after  another,  until  at  last 
it  begins  to  look  as  if  out  of  the  human  brain 
itself,  it  constructs  what  is  virtually  a  pure 
thinking  machine  like  all  its  previous  mechan- 
isms, and  whose  operations,  though  more 
complex,  yet  illustrate  the  same  automatic 
principles  which  govern  the  functions  of  the 
medulla  oblongata.  This  inference  seems 
legitimate,  because  in  so  many  of  its  activi- 
ties the  human  brain  appears  fully  to  exem- 
plify just  the  same  order  of  reactions  which 
we  have  met  before  at  lower  levels. 

Why  is  this  not  enough  ?  It  is  in  no  sense 
enough,  simply  because  the  brain  of  man  and 
the  mind  of  man  do  not  correspond.  Nowhere 
is  there  such  a  discrepancy.  There  is  a  gap 
here  which  no  facts  of  animal  evolution  even 
begin  to  account  for.  Man*s  brain  in  physical 
and  anatomical  respects  corresponds  quite 
closely  to  that  of  the  chimpanzee,  and  hence, 
according  to  all  precedents,  his  mind  should 
show  but  little  advance  in  degree,  and  none 
in  kind,  over  the  mind  of  this  ape.  We  can- 
176 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

not  allow  at  this  point  any  confusion  in 
reasoning  to  obscure  this  fundamental  fact. 
On  the  one  side  is  Homo,  properly  placed  in 
zoology  among  the  Primates,  because  in  his 
body  as  in  his  brain  he  clearly  belongs  to  that 
class  of  animals. 

But  is  it  thus  as  to  his  mind?  Those  stu- 
pendous works,  the  bridge  across  the  Firth 
of  Forth  and  the  Simplon  tunnel  through  the 
Alps,  existed  down  to  the  smallest  detail  in 
their  engineers  *  minds  before  they  existed  on 
earth.  Hence,  we  are  in  the  presence  here  of 
a  being  endowed  with  the  supreme  attributes 
of  a  Creator,  or  one  who  solely  by  his  own 
designing  gives  origin  to  things,  which  other- 
wise would  not  be.  Such  an  endowment 
makes  Man  wholly  unnatural,  because  by  this 
time  we  know  Nature  well  and  her  limitations 
in  all  her  works.  Where  in  Nature  is  there 
anything  so  weird  as  he  who  found  the  In- 
finite Ether  and  straightway  made  it  the 
invisible  bearer  of  his  words  across  oceans! 
What  else  can  his  mind  not  do  when  he  orders 
177 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

electricity  to  change  its  tones  of  thunder  to 
the  small  tickings  of  a  telegraph,  or  by  tele- 
phone carry  his  personal  voice  hundreds  of 
miles  away?  Now,  our  contention  is  not  that 
such  human  doings  are  marvelous,  but  that 
they  are  actually  supernatural,  because 
Nature  has  nothing  which  even  remotely 
approximates  to  them.  But  there  are  other 
aspects  without  number  of  his  mental  activi- 
ties which  are  equally  supernatural,  as  he  dis- 
plays them  in  language,  science,  philosophy, 
religion,  poetry,  art,  statesmanship,  law, 
finance  and  the  rest,  in  any  one  of  which 
spheres  he  has  no  fellow.  But  so  accustomed 
have  we  become  to  this  great  fact  that  we 
wholly  lose  its  profound  significance,  which 
shows  that  man  is  an  animal  only  physically, 
and  the  more  complete  our  knowledge  of  liv- 
ing Nature  is  the  plainer  becomes  this  con- 
clusion. Physically  the  gap  between  the 
brain  of  man  and  the  brain  of  an  anthropoi<3 
ape  is  too  insignificant  to  count,  but  their 
difference  as  beings  corresponds  to  the  dis- 
178 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

tance  of  the  earth  from  the  nearest  fixed 
star. 

Therefore  the  brain  of  man  does  not  ac- 
count for  Man.  What  does?  We  are  bound 
by  our  premises  to  seek  for  an  answer  to  this 
question  only  by  searching  the  brain  itself, 
to  note  whether  in  it  there  are  evidences  of 
the  presence  of  a  Something  whose  agency 
affords  the  sole  explanation  why  the  human 
brain  differs  so  in  its  capacities  from  any 
other  animal  brain.  Having  started  with  the 
brain,  with  the  brain  we  must  continue,  let 
the  investigation  take  us  where  it  may. 

The  brain  is  a  physical  and  material  thing 
and  we  have  already  adduced  proofs  based 
entirely  on  material  facts,  brain  facts  as  they 
may  be  called,  which  show  that  brain  matter 
as  such  has  itself  no  properties  of  mind,  and 
becomes  related  to  mental  processes  only  in 
certain  localities  by  becoming  there  arti- 
ficially, and  not  originally  nor  congenitally 
endowed  with  such  functions.  It  is  not  with 
his  whole  brain  that  a  man  knows,  thinks  or 
179 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

devises,  but  he  does  so  in  limited  areas  of  one 
hemisphere  thereof,  which  he  himself  has 
educated  for  the  purpose.  The  question  then 
follows,  how  came  these  particular  brain 
places  to  be  thus  chosen  and  not  others  pre- 
cisely like  them  in  original  organization? 
That  this  great  creative  choice  proceeds  from 
no  source  in  the  brain  itself  is  demonstrated 
by  the  following  considerations. 

Thus,  as  we  have  already  shown,  the 
speech  centers  in  the  brain  are  as  much  the 
creations  of  the  individual  himself  to  store 
the  words  in  them  for  clothing  his  thoughts 
withal  as  if  he  made  a  wardrobe  in  which  to 
store  garments  for  clothing  his  body.  The 
speech  centers  no  more  generate  the  words 
in  the  one  case  than  the  wardrobe  manufac- 
tures the  articles  which  it  contains.  Hence 
men  supply  themselves  with  as  many  differ- 
ent languages  as  they  invent  different  cos- 
tumes, though  no  one  ever  started  in  life  ^mth 
either  of  these  equipments.  In  fact  he  might 
inherit  clothes  but  never  words,  for  word 
180 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

centers  in  the  brain  must  always  be  person- 
ally made,  because  no  brain  of  itself  ever 
made  a  word. 

As  we  stated  in  Chapter  VI,  this  is  proved 
beyond  mistake  by  the  human  faculty  of 
learning  to  read,  which  rules  out  the  error  of 
some  theorists,  who,  confining  themselves  to 
obser^ang  how  little  children  first  learn 
speech  through  the  ear,  ascribe  the  faculty 
to  automatic  imitation.  But  a  reading  cen- 
ter in  the  angular  gyrus  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  ear,  and  moreover  it  can  be  made 
only  at  the  age'  when  purposive  prolonged 
intention  takes  the  place  of  echo-like  imita- 
tion. 

But  we  are  now  about  to  enumerate  a  most 
important  series  of  facts,  which  like  those 
previously  mentioned,  came  to  light  by  medi- 
cal experience,  and  which  go  even  further 
than  the  discovery  of  the  speech  centers  in 
demonstrating  how  the  brain  is  physically 
related  to  thought.  "We  begin  as  before  with 
an  actual  occurrence — this  time  in  surgery. 
181 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

Sir  William  MacEwen,  the  eminent  Pro- 
fessor of  Surgery  of  the  University  of  Glas- 
gow, gives  the  particulars  of  the  case  of  a 
mechanic  who  received  a  severe  injury  to  his 
head.^  Immediately  after  the  accident  he 
was  in  a  peculiar  mental  condition.  Physi- 
cally he  could  see,  but  what  he  saw  conveyed 
no  impression  to  his  mind.  Thus  an  object 
presented  itself  before  him  which  he  could 
not  make  out,  but  when  this  object  emitted 
sounds  of  the  human  voice,  he  at  once  recog- 
nized it  to  be  a  man  who  was  one  of  his 
fellow-workers.  He  was  equally  unable  to 
recognize  his  wife  and  children.  By  eye- 
sight he  could  not  tell  how  many  fingers  he 
held  up  when  he  placed  his  own  hand  before 
his  face  till  he  became  cognizant  of  the  num- 
ber by  the  sense  of  touch.  These  symptoms 
gave  the  key  to  the  hidden  lesion  in  his  brain 
and  therefore  where  to  trephine  his  skull. 
On  operation  it  was  found  that  a  portion  of 

*  Sir  William  MacEwen;  Address  before  the  British  Medical 
Association  on  the  Sui^ery  of  the  Brain  and  Spinal  Cord, 
Brit.  Med.*  Jour.,  1888,  vol.  ii.,  p.  307. 

182 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

the  inner  table  of  tlie  skull  had  been  detached 
from  the  outer  and  had  become  imbedded  in 
the  gray  matter  of  that  locality.  The  bone 
was  removed  from  the  brain  and  reimplanted 
in  proper  position,  upon  which  he  recovered 
and  returned  to  his  work. 

It  is  evident  from  this  that  that  fragment 
of  bone  interfered  with  an  important  mental 
function  located  in  just  that  brain  spot  which 
it  penetrated,  because  so  soon  as  it  was  re- 
moved from  that  place  the  mental  function 
returned.  What  was  that  mental  function! 
It  was  not  sight,  for  the  man  saw  his  wife 
and  friends  as  well  as  before,  but  he  did  not 
know  what  he  saw.  Hence,  seeing  and  know- 
ing what  is  seen  are  not  the  same  thing,  be- 
cause each  of  these  mental  processes  has  its 
separate  material  seat  in  the  brain.  But  as 
knowing  appears  to  be  so  much  higher  as  an 
intellectual  performance  than  the  simple  sen- 
sation of  sight,  writers  have  inaccurately 
termed  this  special  form  of  abolition  of  intel- 
ligence mind-blindness,  to  distinguish  it  from 
183 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

word-blindness,  which  follows  upon  damage 
to  the  word  center  in  the  angular  gyrus. 
But  word-blindness,  which  renders  a  person 
wholly  illiterate  because  he  no  longer  recog- 
nizes printed  or  written  words  when  he  sees 
them,  though  he  knew  them  perfectly  before, 
is  as  much  an  example  of  mind-blindness  as 
was  this  patient's  mind-blindness,  the  only 
difference  between  the  two  being  in  the  things 
which  were  seen.  In  word-blindness  words 
are  seen  but  not  known;  in  this  so-called 
mind-blindness  objects  are  seen  but  not 
known.  In  both,  therefore,  the  blindness  is 
the  same  in  nature,  namely,  mental  blindness. 
As  this  inability  to  recognize  visual  objects 
has  been  frequently  observed  after  localized 
damage  to  the  brain  from  disease,  the  local- 
ity itself  where  things  perceived  by  sight 
are  then  known  has  become  as  well  identi- 
fied as  is  the  word  center  in  the  angular 
gyrus,  with  the  same  important  deductions 
about  the  way  by  which  this  mental  function 
comes  to  be  so  localized  as  in  the  case  of  the 
184 


THE     BRAIN     AND      PERSONALITY 

eye  word  center.  That  is  to  say,  we  learn  to 
know  how  we  know  what  it  is  we  see  by  first 
discovering  where  this  act  of  knowing  is  done, 
and  secondly,  by  establishing  the  fact  that 
no  other  place  in  the  whole  brain  save  this 
knows  anything  by  sight,  and  also  why  this 
is  so. 

In  explanation  we  shall  first  state  that  the 
primary  center  of  sight  in  the  occipital  lobe 
is  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  wedge-shaped 
convolution  called  the  cuneus.  (See  Frontis- 
piece.) This  convolution,  of  course,  is  found 
equally  in  both  hemispheres,  and  that  it  is 
directly  related  to  sight  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  it  is  only  when  the  region  of  this  convo- 
lution is  destroyed  in  both  hemispheres  that 
total  blindness  is  produced.  That  function 
of  sight  in  the  cuneus  is  doubtless  congenital, 
but  the  child  when  born  does  not  know  what 
it  sees.  That  particular  power  is  afterwards 
acquired,  not  by  the  cuneus,  but  by  an  adja- 
cent area  of  brain  cells,  in  front  of  the  cuneus, 
which  we  ourselves  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
185 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

venience  will  hereafter  call  the  precuneus.^ 
How  this  locality  comes  to  acquire  this  im- 
portant mind  function  of  knowing  what  vis- 
ual objects  are,  we  will  discuss  after  those 
equally  interesting  and  still  more  varied 
facts  connected  with  the  recognition  of 
sounds. 

Thus  in  the  temporal  lobe  is  found  the 
original  center  of  hearing,  just  as  the  cuneus 
in  the  occipital  lobe  is  the  original  center  of 
sight.  But  a  whole  group  of  centers  becomes 
developed  afterwards  around  the  original 
auditory  center,  each  one  of  which  has 
learned  what  different  kinds  of  sound  mean. 
One  of  the  greatest  of  these  is  that  for  music, 
and  a  divine  faculty  it  is,  because  more  than 
anything  else  it  is  the  speech  of  the  soul  as 
it  awakens  to  a  communion  with  the  great 
harmonies  of  the  non-material  universe.  A 
true  musician  must  have  a  richly  furnished 
shrine  for  the  goddess  of  Music  in  his  tem- 

*  Some  writers  attach  this  term  to  a  different  portion  of 
the  sight  object  area. 

186 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

poral  lobe,  and  that  he  has  is  proved  by  some 
persons,  who,  after  having  been  very  fond  of 
music,  and  able  to  tell  at  once  whether  they 
were  listening  to  a  composition  by  Mendels- 
sohn, or  one  by  Wagner,  suddenly  experi- 
ence the  sad  misfortune  technically  termed 
amusia.  No  longer  can  they  recognize  any 
tune,  however  familiar,  and  in  vain  they 
try  a  violin  or  piano  to  bring  back  to  them 
their  departed  joy.  They  know  no  music 
thereafter,  the  reason  being  that  material 
damage  has  happened  to  the  center  in  the 
temporal  lobe  which  has  been  separately  edu- 
cated for  music,  just  as  another  place  in  the 
same  lobe  has  been  separately  educated  for 
words. 

We  have  already  described  what  is  meant 
by  word-deafness,  as  well  as  how  it  is  caused. 
But  besides  the  center  for  words  and  the  cen- 
ter for  music,  the  auditory  area  of  the  tem- 
poral lobe  has  a  place  where  the  meaning  of 
sounds  in  general  is  recognized,  as  the  visual 
area  just  mentioned  has  its  place  for  recog- 
187 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

nizing  objects  of  sight.  Let  this  auditory 
area  be  separately  damaged,  and  the  unfor- 
tunate  then  cannot  tell  the  sound  of  a  loco- 
motive whistle  from  that  of  a  church  bell. 
All  sounds,  including  the  voices  of  his 
friends,  are  alike  indistinguishable  noises  to 
him.  To  this  condition  the  term  mind-deaf- 
ness has  been  given,  signifying  sound-mean- 
ing deafness. 

Therefore  while  the  ability  to  know  is  a 
great  attribute  of  the  human  mind,  yet  these 
facts  prove  that  there  are  actual  physical 
bases  in  the  brain  on  whose  integrity  as  such 
this  faculty  can  alone  be  exercised.  An 
artist  may  be  lost  in  admiration  while  gazing 
at  the  Sistine  Madonna.  An  apoplectic  clot 
may  make  him  the  next  day,  though  still  able 
to  see  that  great  picture,  no  longer  able  to 
distinguish  it  from  a  wall  paper.  A  trained 
musician  may  be  entranced  at  one  time 
listening  to  a  symphony  of  Beethoven,  but 
in  a  few  hours,  though  still  able  to  hear  it,  he 
may  be  wholly  unable  to  recognize  it  as  music. 
188 


THE     BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

In  both  cases  a  highly  developed  mental 
capacity  is  lost  immediately  after  a  local 
brain  injury.  How  are  we  to  explain  this 
sudden  abolition  of  superior  mental  endow- 
ments by  such  physical  changes  ? 

The  explanation  is  as  conclusive  as  it  is 
important,  namely,  that  these  knowing  areas 
are  found  in  the  same  brain  hemisphere  that 
contains  the  speech  centers,  and  in  that  hem- 
isphere only,  so  that  the  inference  is  certain 
that  they  are  all  created  by  the  same  agency. 
Thus  Professor  MacEwen^s  patient  was  a 
right-handed  man,  and  the  splinter  was 
driven  into  a  convolution  of  his  left  brain, 
that  is,  into  the  speaking  and  not  into  the 
wordless  hemisphere.  Now,  he  had  just  the 
same  collection  of  cells  in  the  corresponding 
region  in  front  of  the  right  cuneus,  and  more- 
over they  were  not  injured  at  all  in  the  ac- 
cident; nevertheless  they  could  not  help  him 
recognize  his  wife  and  children  any  more 
than  those  cells  could  read  Latin !  It  is  evi- 
dent, therefore,  that  those  right  hemisphere 
189 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

cells,  though  they  could  see,  because  they  be- 
longed to  the  visual  area,  yet  did  not  know 
what  they  saw,  any  more  than  an  infant 
knows  what  it  sees  when  it  first  comes  into 
the  world.  Though  existing  in  an  adult  man 
they  had  never  been  taught  the  meaning  of 
visual  objects,  any  more  than  his  right  tem- 
poral lobe  cells  had  ever  been  taught  to  hear 
a  word,  or  his  right  angular  gyrus  to  read  a 
word. 

Likewise  it  has  been  found  that  the  in- 
juries, technically  termed  lesions,  which  pro- 
duce the  various  forms  of  mind-deafness 
above  described,  occur  only  in  the  left  hemi- 
spheres of  right-handed  persons,  or  in  the 
right  hemispheres  of  left-handed  persons; 
in  other  words,  they  show  how  these  mental 
functions  strictly  follow  the  hand  most  used 
in  childhood,  just  as  the  speech  centers  do. 

Hence  we  learn  to  know  just  as  we  learn 

to  think.    We  think  in  words,  and  for  that 

purpose  we  register  our  word  memories  in 

their  laboriously  prepared  brain  places.    So 

190 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

also  we  register  the  memories  of  what  we  see 
and  of  what  we  hear  in  their  prepared  places, 
the  preparation  in  both  instances  having 
originally  been  begun  by  the  most  active  hand 
in  response  to  personal  intent.  Investiga- 
tions into  infant  psychology  show  that  the 
first  training  of  the  sight  object  center  oc- 
curs only  a  little  earlier  than  the  time  when 
the  cells  in  the  temporal  lobe  are  being 
trained  to  hear  the  first  words,  for  the  in- 
fant begins  its  lessons  of  sight  interpreta- 
tion by  stretching  forth  its  little  hand  to  find 
out  what  it  is  which  it  is  looking  at.  So  far 
back  in  our  lives,  however,  did  this  process 
begin  that  we  have  forgotten  all  about  it ;  but 
the  saying,  ''  a  burnt  child  dreads  the  fire," 
refers  to  the  inscription  made  by  the  child 
on  its  precuneus  that  a  flame  is  not  like  some 
other  attractively  shining  thing,  and  that  it 
had  better  not  try  again  to  seize  hold  of  it. 

According  to  the  physiological  laws  which 
we  have  already  mentioned,  memories  of  all 
kinds  are  doubtless  registered  in  our  brain 
191 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

cells  by  the  original  stimulus  of  each,  and 
when  an  agency  like  conscious  purpose  sys- 
tematically repeats  the  same  stimulus  to  the 
same  cells,  they  become  arranged  there  in  a 
library  of  records,  as  we  have  shown  is  the 
case  in  the  speech  centers.  There  is  really 
nothing  incomprehensible  in  this,  for  some- 
thing quite  analogous  to  it  all  is  accom- 
plished in  that  remarkable  mechanism,  the 
phonograph,  in  which  layer  after  layer  of 
its  delicate  receptive  wax  leaves  may  be 
found  covered  with  all  kinds  of  sentences,  or 
entire  songs  with  their  tunes ;  while  by  a  de- 
vice similar  to  Broca's  convolution,  there 
come  back  again  through  its  brazen  throat 
the  words,  tunes,  tones,  and  all  else  spoken 
into  the  machine.  An  uninstructed  Moslem 
sheikh  from  Arabia  might  regard  this  as  an 
unholy  invention  of  Satan,  which  of  itself 
produces  all  that  it  utters,  whereas  neither 
it  nor  Satan  but  a  human  person  is  the 
source  of  every  one  of  its  uncanny  per- 
formances. 

192  .      , 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

From  these  considerations  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  exercise  of  every  separate 
mental  faculty  is  conditioned  by  acquired 
cerebral  changes  similar  to  those  by  which 
is  interpreted  all  information  coming  by  the 
eye  and  the  ear.  The  brain  thus  comes  to 
have  places  where  memories  are  stored  for 
the  understanding  of  each  special  sensation. 
But  it  also  follows  on  anatomical  grounds 
that  the  human  being  when  he  thinks,  per- 
ceives, knows,  remembers,  conceives,  reasons, 
purposes  and  speaks  has  these  powers  physi- 
cally located  in  only  one  of  the  two  hemi- 
spheres of  his  brain.  As  long  as  the  educated 
hemisphere  is  in  sound  condition  it  matters 
little,  so  far  as  the  mind  is  concerned,  what 
happens  to  the  uneducated  hemisphere. 
Thus  the  man  mentioned  in  Chapter  IV,  p. 
63,  who  had  lost  one  of  his  hemispheres  by 
disease,  happily  for  him  had  his  speaking 
hemisphere  left  intact,  and  therefore  he  re- 
mained himself  in  all  mental  and  moral  char- 
acteristics. Hence  his  story  and  others  like 
193 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

his  in  medical  literature  prove  that  human 
brain  matter  does  not  become  human  in  its 
powers  until  that  Something  within  takes  it 
in  hand  to  fashion  it.  But  for  that  purpose 
one  hemisphere  of  the  brain  matter  is  quite 
enough,  just  as  one  violin  is  quite  enough 
for  its  player,  while  to  the  untaught  hemi- 
sphere is  left  only  what  it  had  at  birth,  with- 
out a  word  or  an  idea  or  a  single  acquired 
accomplishment.  But  what  is  this  wondrous 
Something  which  we  have  been  following 
from  convolution  to  convolution  of  the  human 
brain  under  the  guidance,  not  of  metaphy- 
sicians, but  of  physicians  and  surgeons  ? 

We  have  seen  that  this  Something  is  not 
natural,  but  supernatural,  both  in  its  powers 
and  in  its  creations  by  means  of  those  powers. 
Hence,  it  could  not  have  come  by  any  modi- 
fication or  advance  upon  a  chimpanzee's 
brain,  because  in  the  human  brain  itself  this 
Something  is  only  in  one  of  its  hemispheres, 
according  as  it  has  been  put  there,  not  by 
the  hemisphere,  but  by  the  human  being  him- 
194 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

self,  which  he  does  generally  in  the  left,  but 
sometimes  in  the  right  one,  with  equal  com- 
pleteness in  either  case.  This  Something  can 
be  no  other  than  that  greatest  of  realities 
here,  the  Self  or  the  Human  Personality.  To 
us  this  is  the  most  direct  certainty  which  we 
know  of,  because  all  other  phenomena  are 
contingent  upon  and  relative  to  personal 
consciousness.  Those  reasoners  who  attempt 
to  explain  personality  away  by  saying  that 
it  is  only  the  condition  of  our  make-up  at  the 
time  being,  evidently  imagine  that  we  are 
ourselves  according  to  the  state  of  the  atoms 
or  ions  of  our  brains.  But  this  theory  is  at 
once  disposed  of  by  the  demonstration  that 
our  mentality  is  wholly  unilateral  in  our 
brains  and  is  made  so  by  nothing  in  the  brain 
itself  either  before  birth  or  at  birth. 

This  statement,  which  implies  that  one  of 
the  two  human  brain  hemispheres  is  nor- 
mally unintelligent  and  thoughtless,  is  un- 
acceptable to  some  reasoners  because  it  com- 
pels the  admission  that  the  thinker  and  his 
195 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

brain  are  two  separate  things,  the  brain,  like 
the  hand,  being  only  the  instrument  of  the 
thinker.  Therefore  they  search  for  indica- 
tions that  the  silent  hemisphere  sometimes 
does  come  to  the  help  of  its  highly  endowed 
partner  when  the  latter  is  disabled  in  its 
speaking  power  by  disease — the  inference 
being  that  it  does  so  by  its  inherent  capacity 
for  speech.  But  no  unmistakable  cases  of 
the  kind  have  yet  been  published,  and,  as  we 
have  remarked  before  in  Chapter  VI,  those 
which  seem  to  be  so,  can  easily  be  otherwise 
explained.  Thus  in  childhood  both  hemi- 
spheres are  equally  teachable,  and  speech  lost 
by  damage  to  one  can  be  made  up  by  the 
education  of  the  speech  convolutions  in  the 
other.  But  the  age  when  new  languages  may 
be  learned  varies  in  different  individuals,  so 
that  it  is  not  impossible  for  it  to  be  done  in 
the  fifties.  If,  therefore,  an  adult  is  found 
to  have  recovered  from  aphasia  after  a  time, 
this  does  not  prove  that  he  had  two  speech 
centers  all  the  while,  for  speech  is  never 
196 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

an  original  endo"vvment  nor  a  spontaneous 
power,  but  must  always  be  the  result  of  the 
special  training  of  brain  cells.  That  this 
marvelous  training  is  practically  limited  to 
only  one  hemisphere  is  shown  by  the  positive 
and  not  hypothetical  evidence  in  hundreds 
of  cases  of  individuals,  many  of  them  men 
distinguished  for  mental  gifts,  who  after  a 
stroke  causing  either  sensory  or  motor 
aphasia,  never  regained  their  lost  powers, 
however  long  they  lived  afterwards  with  an 
uninjured  hemisphere  in  their  heads. 

Nor  is  the  problem  changed  or  lessened  by 
referring  to  the  speaking  and  knowing  hemi- 
sphere as  somehow  the  "  driving  "  hemi- 
sphere, for  the  question  then  is  what  makes 
it  '*  drive  "  so  wondrously  to  the  utmost 
ranges  of  human  thought,  while  its  fellow  is 
left  unable  to  know  a  life  companion  by  sight 
or  to  distinguish  strains  of  music  from  mere 
noises. 

Meanwhile  before  the  advent  of  this  per- 
sonal agency  which  deals  so  remarkably  with 
197 


BRAIN    AND     PERSONALITY 

portions  of  human  brain  matter  as  to  impart 
to  them  transcendent  properties  which  they 
did  not  have  before,  nor  ever  could  have  spon- 
taneously, the  only  organizer  of  nervous  tis- 
sue which  we  have  met  was  the  Afferent, 
bringing  stimuli  from  the  environment  or 
outside  world.  But  the  more  we  study  the 
processes  which  result  in  these  mind-linked 
changes  in  Man  with  the  same  attention 
which  has  been  bestowed  upon  the  operations 
of  the  Afferent,  the  plainer  it  becomes  that 
their  formative  stimuli  come  not  from  with- 
out but  from  within,  and  are  essentially  un- 
like the  workings  of  the  Afferent.  Nothing 
savoring  of  purpose  or  design  enters  into  the 
play  of  the  Afferent  as  it  flows  into  the  nerve 
centers  with  its  sensations,  any  more  than 
the  currents  of  air  causing  the  threads  of 
an  ^olian  harp  to  vibrate  have  any  musical 
meaning  comparable  to  the  **  airs  "  of  a 
Verdi.  Instead  of  that  the  centers  organized 
by  the  Afferent  for  work  perform  that  work 
with  no  more  design  than  does  a  watch  pur- 
198 


THE     BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

posely  go  when  it  is  wound  up.  Automatism, 
pure  and  simple,  is  inseparable  from  the 
Afferent  in  every  one  of  its  relations.  More- 
over this  afferent  mechanism  is  congenital, 
entering  the  world  ready-made,  without 
needing  mind  to  work  it. 

But  to  speak  of  a  personality  which  thinks, 
purposes  and  wills  as  automatic,  is  a  self-con- 
tradiction in  terms.  We  need  not  appeal  to 
metaphysics  for  our  argument,  because  we 
now  meet  with  another  strong  line  of  evi- 
dence that  the  personality  can  dispense  with 
the  most  important  means  of  afferent 
stimuli  which  Nature  furnishes,  and  yet 
make  good  their  loss  because  the  personality 
is  independent  and  self-determining,  and 
hence  can  triumph  over  the  most  serious  dep- 
rivations possible  of  its  afferent  mechan- 
isms for  communication  with  the  world  in 
which  it  lives.  This  has  been  shown  in  some 
members  of  our  race  who  have  suffered  from 
certain  great  misfortunes  in  early  life,  which, 
however,  constitute  in  a  way  most  instruc- 
199 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

tive  physiological  experiments.  To  appre- 
ciate the  force  of  these  demonstrations  we 
must  first  take  into  account  how  much  in  each 
case  was  lost  of  life's  equipment  for  mental 
development.  Thus  it  requires  some  effort 
to  estimate  how  much  education  the  human 
mind  receives  from  the  single  afferent  chan- 
nel of  the  eye.  To  do  this  at  all  adequately, 
we  must  go  back  to  the  first  news  which  the 
child  gets  from  the  outer  world  by  sight.  A 
series  of  impressions,  first  of  color,  then  of 
form,  then  of  distance,  and  lastly  of  defi- 
nite objects,  are  made  upon  the  brain  vis- 
ual area,  until  by  repetition  a  vast  store 
of  picture  memories  are  there  laid  up  for 
life,  as  so  many  object  lessons.  How  much, 
therefore,  is  the  mind  of  a  young  child  de- 
prived of,  if  it  becomes  blind  before  this 
great  afferent  teacher  could  give  it  a  single 
lesson  I 

But  for  the  education  and  direction  of 
thought  and  feeling  the  human  being,  differ- 
ent from  the  lower  animals,  gains  more  by 
200 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

the  afferent  channel  of  the  Ear  than  by  that 
of  the  Eye,  The  only  exception  to  this  law 
seems  to  be  in  the  case  of  birds.  Mr.  Sclater 
sealed  up  the  ears  of  newly  hatched  chicks, 
and  not  one  of  them  could  be  induced  to  come 
to  the  mother  hen  who  was  excitedly  clucking 
to  them.  The  chicks  were  then  placed  where 
they  could  not  see  her,  and  their  ears  were 
unstopped,  when  as  quickly  as  they  heard 
her  they  ran  round  to  where  she  was  and 
were  soon  under  her  wings.  But  for  the 
human  infant  the  loss  of  hearing  is  a  terri- 
ble calamity.  Besides  being  at  first  its  only 
appeal  to  others,  it  is  itself  a  relief  to  the 
child  to  cry.  Hence,  when  it  cannot  hear  its 
own  cry,  it  becomes  the  more  disturbed  by 
its  feelings,  because  loving  looks  and  touch 
only  imperfectly  make  up  for  kindly  voice, 
tones  and  ivords.  We  must  not  forget  that 
to  a  human  ear,  however  young,  words  soon 
have  some  meaning,  more  than  parents  may 
then  suppose,  until  a  few  months  afterwards 
they  are  surprised  that  their  children  know 
201 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

so  much.  If  words  once  begin  to  reach 
through  the  ear,  the  mind  springs  forward 
to  its  limitless  inheritance  of  thought,  and 
especially  of  feelings.  It  is  the  ear,  not  the 
eye,  which  moves  the  heart.  We  see  with  in- 
difference a  fish  in  its  dying  writhings,  but 
we  cannot  listen  to  cries  of  pain  without 
emotion.  The  seeing  of  the  eye  supplies  the 
intellect  with  more  ideas  than  do  sounds  (not 
words)  which  come  through  the  ear.  But 
the  intellect  informing  eye  makes  more  mis- 
takes than  all  the  afferent  channels  put  to- 
gether in  the  information  which  it  brings. 
Its  news  has  always  to  be  revised  and  cor- 
rected by  the  other  senses  before  it  can  be 
accepted.  Thus  it  reports  that  a  man  is  only 
a  foot  high  when  he  is  a  mile  off.  But  the 
ear  is  always  accurate.  I  have  recognized 
a  friend's  voice  when  it  came  over  four  hun- 
dred miles  on  a  telephone  wire  as  plainly  as 
if  he  had  been  in  the  next  room.  Close  the 
ear,  therefore,  of  a  child,  and  it  remains 
more  a  mere  animal  than  when  any  other 
202 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

avenue  with  the  outer  world  is  closed,  be- 
cause it  is  dumb. 

If  we  should  liken  our  apparatus  for  mind 
training  to  a  boat  which  is  to  take  us  over  the 
sea  of  life,  the  great  afferent  mechanisms  of 
the  eye  and  of  the  ear  might  then  be  regarded 
as  corresponding  to  the  hull  and  to  the  frame 
respectively.  Can  the  personality,  therefore, 
survive  the  complete  wreck  of  both,  and  go  on 
with  nothing  but  the  keel  to  cling  to  for  the 
rest  of  the  voyage!  The  answer  would  cer- 
tainly be  no,  if  the  personality  depended,  not 
only  for  its  development,  but  also  for  its  own 
origin,  upon  its  afferent  mechanisms.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Afferent  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  personality  except  to  inform  it, 
the  loss  of  the  Afferent  will  have  no  other 
effect  on  the  personality  than  that  of  leaving 
it  in  ignorance.  The  personality  would  then 
be  simply  like  one  condemned  to  solitary  con- 
finement. That  being  so,  if  only  some  mes- 
sages could  reach  him  by  any  route,  how- 
ever unusual  or  roundabout,  the  personality 
203 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

would  be  found  as  complete  and  individual 
as  ever. 

The  conclusiveness  of  this  demonstration 
needs  a  trained  physiologist  to  appreciate  it 
fully,  because  he  well  knows  how  much  each 
special  sense  contributes  to  the  mental  equip- 
ment of  a  human  being,  and,  therefore,  how 
much  is  lost  when  not  one,  but  two,  of  the 
chiefest  life  instructors  of  the  mind  are 
simultaneously  lost.  It  is  this  which  makes 
the  autobiography  of  the  celebrated  Helen 
Keller  of  such  intense  interest,  regarded 
purely  from  a  physiological  point  of  view.^ 
So  important  and  decisive  in  their  bearing 
upon  the  subject  of  our  discussion  are  the 
facts  illustrated  by  her  story,  that  we  feel 
justified  in  dwelling  upon  them  at  some 
length.  It  is  not  on  account  of  her  becoming 
such  an  accomplished  woman,  with  so  many 
eminent  men  and  women  among  her  personal 
friends  and  correspondents,  that  we  do  so, 

»  The  story  of  My  Life,  by  Helen  KeUer.     1903.     Doubl©- 
day,  Page  &  Co. 

.  204 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

but  because  to  a  physiologist  she  is  such  an 
instructive  **  case.'*  Physicians  get  into  the 
way  of  looking  at  patients  as  so  many 
"  cases  "  of  this  or  that  disease,  and  so 
Helen  Keller  fixes  the  attention  of  a  physiolo- 
gist not  from  sympathy,  for  he  has  nothing 
to  do  with  sympathy,  but  because  she  is 
a  first-class  scientific  demonstration.  Noth- 
ing, therefore,  which  we  will  quote  from  her 
published  autobiography  is  for  the  sake  of 
anecdote,  but  for  what  it  implies  about  brain 
matter. 

(I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that  physicians 
have  their  capacity  for  sympathy  lessened  by 
their  pursuits.  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
was  Professor  of  Anatomy  at  the  Harvard 
Medical  School,  and  a  trained  physiologist 
as  well.  Helen  Keller  thus  writes  (Life,  p. 
135):  '*I  remember  well  the  first  time  I 
saw  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  He  had 
invited  Miss  Sullivan  and  me  to  call  on  him 
one  Sunday  afternoon.  It  was  early  in  the 
spring,  just  after  I  had  learned  to  speak.  We 
205 


BRAIN    AND     PERSONALITY 

were  shown  at  once  to  his  library,  where  wo 
found  him  seated  in  a  big  arm-chair  by  an 
open  fire  which  glowed  and  crackled  on  the 
hearth,   thinking,   he   said,   of   other   days. 

*  And  listening  to  the  murmur  of  the  River 
Charles,'  I  suggested.     *  Yes,*  he  replied, 

*  the  Charles  has  many  dear  associations  for 
me. '  There  was  an  odor  of  print  and  leather 
in  the  room  which  told  me  that  it  was  full  of 
books,  and  I  stretched  out  my  hand  instinc- 
tively to  find  them.  My  fingers  lighted  upon 
a  beautiful  volume  of  Tennyson's  poems,  and 
when  Miss  Sullivan  told  me  what  it  was,  I 
began  to  recite : 

*  Break,  break,  break, 
On  thy  cold  gray  stones,  C  Seal ' 

But  I  stopped  suddenly.  I  felt  tears  on  my 
hand.  I  had  made  my  beloved  poet  weep, 
and  I  was  greatly  disturbed.") 

When  nineteen  months  old,  Helen  Keller 
had  an  attack,  presumably  of  cerebro-spinal 
meningitis,  which  left  her  totally  and  perma- 
206 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

nently  blind  and  deaf,  and  hence  dumb  also. 
Till  her  seventh  year,  therefore,  she  was 
wholly  dependent  upon  her  senses  of  smell, 
taste  and  touch  for  all  her  information. 
Hence,  also,  she  could  communicate  her 
wants  or  feelings  to  others  only  by  bodily 
actions  which  she  had  learned  to  associate 
in  her  mind  with  states  of  pleasure  or  of 
pain.  On  this  account  she  was  perpetually 
subject  to  fits  of  great  excitement  or  anger, 
due  to  her  inner  feelings  having  such  imper- 
fect outlets  for  expression,  while  she  was 
equally  deprived  of  direction  from  others. 
The  best  of  us,  though  equipped  with  every 
means  of  communication  by  speech,  tone,  ges- 
ture and  glance,  with  like  return  of  the  same 
from  our  fellows,  are  yet  apt  to  be  impatient 
at  the  slowness  of  others  in  understanding 
us.  We  can  imagine,  therefore,  what  it  was 
to  this  child  to  have  scarcely  any  way  to  ex- 
plain her  wants  except  by  throwing  things, 
or  herself,  on  the  ground. 
If  the  Afferent  is  the  origin  of  mental  en- 
207 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

dowments,  her  father's  pet  dog  and  cat  with 
full  possession  of  sight  and  hearing,  not  to 
mention  voice,  were  in  better  condition  for 
development  than  she  was.  On  March  6, 
1887,  Helen's  teacher.  Miss  Sullivan,  arrived, 
and  her  first  endeavor  was  to  begin  teaching 
the  child  language  by  tracing  on  the  palm  of 
her  hand  the  letters  spelling  the  words 
**  doll  "  and  "  cake."  Repetitions  of  these 
word  tracings  continued  until  Helen  could 
make  them  for  herself,  and  by  March  31  she 
could  trace  on  her  hand  eighteen  nouns  and 
three  verbs,  without  knowing,  however,  what 
they  meant.  On  April  5,  hardly  a  month 
from  the  beginning  of  her  education,  the 
awakening  came.  Miss  Sullivan  had  her 
hold  a  mug  in  her  hand  at  a  pump,  and  as 
the  cold  water  filled  the  mug  and  ran  on  her 
hand,  the  teacher  traced  anew  the  letters 
w-a-t-e-r  on  the  palm  of  her  free  hand.  Miss 
Sullivan  writes:  "  She  dropped  the  mug 
and  stood  as  one  transfixed.  A  new  light 
came  into  her  face.  She  spelled  water 
208 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

several  times."  The  great  step  was  gained 
when  this  blind,  deaf  and  dumb  girl  suddenly 
imderstood  that  the  symbol  traced  in  her 
palm  meant — water.  She  had  got  a  word! 
From  that  moment  her  personality  was  set 
free,  like  a  prisoner  allowed  to  leave  a  dark 
dungeon  to  go  wherever  he  lists,  for  now  for 
the  first  time  she  knew  that  everything  had  a 
name,  which  she  could  learn  on  her  palm. 
* '  The  next  morning  Helen  got  up  like  a  radi- 
ant fairy.  She  has  flitted  from  object  to 
object,  asking  the  name  of  everything, ' '  kiss- 
ing her  teacher  for  the  first  time  in  her  glad- 
ness. It  is  touching  to  read  that  she  tried  to 
teach  her  dog  by  tracing  the  word  water  on 
its  paws.  From  this  beginning  her  progress 
was  rapid.  In  two  years  and  a  half  she  was 
studying  arithmetic,  geography,  zoology  and 
botany,  and  reading  general  literature.  Mean- 
time she  was  asking  questions  about  every- 
thing; and  for  its  physiological  interest  in 
showing  how  a  shut-in  mind,  so  to  speak,  like 
hers,  will  work  when  once  in  possession  of 
209 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

the  Logos  faculty,   we  make  this   extract, 
p.  370: 

''Early  in  May,  1890  (fourth  year  of  her 
training),  she  wrote  on  her  tablet  the  follow- 
ing list  of  questions :  '  I  wish  to  write  about 
things  I  do  not  understand.  Who  made  the 
earth,  and  the  seas  and  everything?  What 
makes  the  sun  hot?  Where  was  I  before  I 
came  to  Mother?  I  know  that  plants  grow 
from  seeds  which  are  in  the  ground,  but  I  am 
sure  people  do  not  grow  that  way.  I  never 
saw  a  child  plant.  Little  birds  and  chickens 
come  out  of  eggs:  I  have  seen  them.  (All 
blind  persons  who  have  no  memory  of  eye- 
sight constantly  speak  of  seeing,  meaning 
thereby  correctly  enough  mental  sight,'  i.e., 
perceiving.)  What  was  the  egg  before  it  was 
an  eggi  Why  does  not  the  earth  fall;  it  is 
so  large  and  heavy?  Tell  me  something  that 
Father  Nature  does. '  ' ' 

There  was  no  stopping  her  now.    She  must 
know  the  origin  of  things.   What  human  being 
does  not  ask  this  question?    Does  this  univer- 
210 


THE     BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

sal  human  trait  come  from  any  function  of 
the  automatic  Afferent,  or  from  the  free 
Personality? 

When  her  teacher  in  reply  (p.  371)  told  her 
that  "men  came  to  believe  that  all  forces  were 
manifestations  of  one  power,  and  to  that 
power  they  gave  the  name  God,  she  soon 
asked,  'Where  is  God?  Did  you  ever  see 
Godr  I  told  her  that  God  was  everywhere, 
and  that  she  must  not  think  of  Him  as  a  per- 
son, but  as  the  life,  the  mind,  the  soul  of 
everything.  This  pantheistic  talk  did  not  suit 
Helen.  She  interrupted  me:  'Everything 
does  not  have  life.  The  rocks  have  not  life, 
and  they  cannot  think.'  " 

In  March,  1890,  three  years  after  she  began 
with  her  first  word,  she  commenced  to  take 
lessons  in  articulate  speech.  On  account  of 
their  complete  illustration  of  physiological 
fact,  we  will  quote  a  few  passages  in  which 
she  relates  her  experience  in  learning  how 
to  make  Broca's  convolution  do  this  work. 
(Life,  p.  60.)  **I  shall  never  forget  the  sur- 
211 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

prise  and  delight  I  felt  when  I  uttered  my 
first  sentence,  *It  is  warm.'  True,  they  were 
broken  and  stammering  syllables,  but  they 
were  human  speech.  My  soul,  conscious  of 
new  strength,  came  out  of  bondage.  ...  No 
deaf  child  who  has  earnestly  tried  to  speak 
the  words  which  he  has  never  heard, — to 
come  out  of  the  prison  of  silence,  can  forget 
the  thrill  of  surprise  which  came  over  him 
when  he  uttered  his  first  word.  Only  such  an 
one  can  appreciate  the  eagerness  with  which 
I  talked  to  my  toys,  or  the  delight  I  felt  when 
at  my  call  Mildred  [her  little  sister]  ran  to 
me,  or  my  dogs  obeyed  my  voice.  .  .  .  But  it 
must  not  be  supposed  that  I  could  really  talk 
in  this  short  time.  I  needed  Miss  Sullivan's 
assistance  constantly  in  my  efforts  to  articu- 
late each  sound  clearly,  and  to  combine  all 
sounds  in  a  thousand  ways.  Even  now  she 
calls  my  attention  every  day  to  mispro- 
nounced words.  All  teachers  of  the  deaf 
know  what  this  means,  and  only  they  can  at 
all  appreciate  the  peculiar  difficulties  with 
212 


THE     BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

which  I  had  to  contend.  In  reading  my  teach- 
er'a  lips,  I  was  wholly  dependent  on  my  fin- 
gers. I  had  to  use  the  sense  of  touch  in 
catching  the  vibrations  of  the  throat,  the 
movements  of  the  mouth,  and  the  expression 
of  the  face,  and  often  this  sense  was  at  fault. 
In  such  cases  I  was  forced  to  repeat  the  words 
or  sentences,  sometimes  for  hours,  until  I  felt 
the  proper  ring  in  my  own  voice.  My  work 
was  practice,  practice,  practice.  Discourage- 
ment and  weariness  cast  me  down  frequently, 
but  the  next  moment  the  thought  that  I  should 
soon  be  at  home  and  show  my  loved  ones  what 
I  had  accomplished  spurred  me  on.  '  My  lit- 
tle sister  will  understand  me  now,*  was  a 
thought  stronger  than  all  obstacles.  I  used^ 
to  repeat  ecstatically,  'I  am  not  dumb  now'  I" 
** Words  are  the  mind's  wings,"  as  she  wrote 
to  Dr.  Holmes. 

Helen  Keller's  story  of  her  life  begins  with 

a  child  in  her  seventh  year,  with  each  of  the 

avenues  of  incoming  and  of  outgoing  speech 

closed  to  her.    After  two  months  language 

213 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

begins  with  one  word  lodged  in  her  con- 
sciousness by  a  most  circuitous  brain  path. 
The  book  ends  with  a  young  woman,  a  gradu- 
ate with  honors  of  Eadcliffe  College,  versed 
in  the  sciences  taught  there,  along  with  ex- 
tensive reading  in  Latin,  Greek,  French,  Ger- 
man and  English  classics,  passionately  fond 
of  poetry  and  of  history,  a  writer  of  the 
purest  English  style,  and  a  thinker  of  no 
mean  order,  as  is  sufficiently  illustrated  by  a 
remark  of  hers  (p.  295) :  "Toleration  is  the 
greatest  gift  of  the  mind ;  it  requires  the  same 
effort  of  the  brain  that  it  takes  to  balance 
one's  self  on  a  bicycle." 

But,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  the  phy- 
siological interest  of  her  story  is  quite  apart 
from  the  interest  of  her  biography,  great  as 
that  is.  To  a  physiologist  it  is  an  example  of 
a  living  brain,  with  the  cells  of  the  great  vis- 
ual area  entirely  and  forever  atrophied  or 
wasted  away,  because  that  is  what  happens 
to  those  textural  cerebral  elements  in  cases 
of  her  kind.  No  word  for  reading  could  ever 
214 


THE     BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

be  registered  in  her  angular  gyrus,  nor  in  any 
neighboring  visual  cells.  And  just  the  same 
extinction  of  bearing  cells  was  present  in  her 
temporal  lobes,  so  that  not  one  was  left  there 
to  catch  the  sound  of  a  word  any  more  than 
that  of  any  other  sound.  Broca's  convolu- 
tion for  uttering  speech,  therefore,  could  not 
have  had  a  single  ''telephone"  wire  coming 
to  it  from  either  of  these  two  great  afferent 
centers.  After  a  while  Broca's  convolution 
began  to  be  rung  up  by  thousands  of  reiter- 
ated messages  coming  from  a  wholly  unusual 
quarter  in  the  brain,  namely,  the  center  of  the 
sense  of  touch.  ''Practice,  practice,  prac- 
tice, ' '  by  the  hour  at  a  time — the  work  of  an 
indomitable  personal  will — finally  makes  that 
convolution  submit  to  this  perpetual  stimula- 
tion from  the  tactile  area,  till  it  becomes 
ready  to  do  what  Helen  purposes,  whether  to 
speak,  to  read  aloud  or  to  write. 

Now  it  happens  that  the  sense  of  touch  is 
the  most  diffused  of  all  the  senses  at  the  sur- 
face of  the  body,  so  that  it  is  not  localized  in 
215 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

one  organ,  like  the  eye  or  the  ear.  On  that 
account  it  is  the  least  specialized  of  any  of 
the  senses,  so  much  so  that  its  anatomical  seat 
in  the  brain  center  is  even  yet  not  fully 
demonstrated.  By  itself,  therefore,  this 
sense  could  not  afford  the  mind  much  definite 
information.  But  personality  with  a  purpose 
can  specialize  anything  nervous.  The  United 
States  Treasury  paid  a  high  salary  to  a  man 
on  account  of  the  one  fact  that  while  he  could 
count  gold  pieces  by  the  hundred  thousand 
with  great  rapidity,  he  would  instantly  toss 
out  either  a  defective  or  a  fraudulent  coin, 
because  for  such  detection  his  touch  was 
infallible. 

In  normal  individuals  Broca's  convolution 
is  in  constant  communication  with  the  affer- 
ent speech  centers,  those  of  the  ear  and  eye 
respectively  by  numerous  nerve  fibers  pass- 
ing between  them  with  just  that  function. 
This  is  proved  by  the  occurrence  of  many  in- 
stances of  word-deafness  or  word-blindness 
during  life,  in  which  after  death  the  injury 
216 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

was  found  not  in  the  gray  matter  of  the  con- 
volutions, but  in  the  track  of  the  white  fibers 
leading  from  them.  It  is  difficult  on  that  ac- 
count to  decide  in  some  patients  with  aphasia 
whether  the  damage  has  occurred  in  the  gray 
cortex  or  in  the  subjacent  conducting  white 
matter,  for  the  effects  would  be  much  the 
same  in  either  case.  Normally,  however, 
there  can  be  but  very  few  if  any  nerve  fibers 
connecting  Broca's  convolution  with  the  area 
of  the  sense  of  touch.  How  are  we  to  sup- 
pose, therefore,  that  in  Helen  Keller's  case 
the  afferent  speech  which  she  learned  through 
the  sense  of  touch  made  such  abundant  con- 
nections with  the  speech-uttering  center,  that 
she  could  talk  to  others  in  all  the  ways  char- 
acteristic of  the  function  of  Broca's  center 
in  ordinary  persons? 

We  have  to  mention  now  in  explanation 
certain  facts  about  nerve  fibers  which  we 
have  not  alluded  to  before.  A  nerve  fiber  is 
really  a  prolongation  or  part  of  the  nerve 
cell  from  which  it  originates,  and  is  itself 
217 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

as  much  gray  matter  as  the  cell  to  which  it 
belongs.  Now  one  of  the  most  important 
facts  about  these  fibrils  of  gray  matter  is 
that  they  can  grow,  and  that  they  grow  in 
the  direction  of  the  stimulus  which  courses 
through  them.  Thus,  if  a  nerve  be  cut  so  that 
the  two  severed  ends  remain  at  some  distance 
from  each  other,  in  a  few  weeks  it  is  found 
that  new  nerve  fibers  sprout  out  of  the  stump 
end  nearest  the  source  of  its  origin  until  the 
gap  is  bridged.  This  property  is  taken  ad- 
vantage of  in  surgery  to  restore  the  sensi- 
bility and  mobility  of  a  part  when  that  has 
been  lost  by  severance  of  its  nerves.  Hence 
while  it  is  true  that  such  regeneration  does 
not  occur  apparently  in  the  conducting  fibers 
of  the  brain  itself,  yet  there  is  no  improba- 
bility in  the  surmise  that  repeated  currents 
of  stimuli  will  in  time  project,  as  it  were,  new 
tracts  of  fibers  from  one  cerebral  convolution 
to  another,  for  that  would  be  only  in  keeping 
with  facts  already  ascertained  of  the  devel- 
opment of  great  and  important  tracts  of  ner- 
218 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

vous  fibers  as  a  child  grows.  Thus,  in  the 
human  infant  at  birth,  the  great  pyramidal 
tract,  as  it  is  called,  which  connects  the  motor 
area  of  the  cerebral  cortex  with  the  spinal 
cord,  and  by  which  all  voluntary  movements 
are  executed,  is  far  less  developed  than  it 
will  be  four  years  later.  As  the  child  by  prac- 
tice learns  to  use  its  hands  and  feet,  new 
nerve  fibers  by  the  thousand  grow  from  the 
motor  center  of  the  cortex,  to  go  down  and 
make  connections  with  the  motor  centers 
of  the  spinal  cord.  Such,  moreover,  must  be 
the  case  in  the  organizing  of  the  speech 
centers  in  the  speaking  hemisphere  of  the 
brain.  If  either  the  reading  angular  con- 
volution, on  the  one  hand,  or  the  word  hear- 
ing temporal  convolution  on  the  other,  had 
no  fibers  developed  for  connecting  them 
with  their  corresponding  speech  uttering 
convolution,  as  well  as  with  each  other, 
the  person  might  read  or  hear  words,  but 
could  not  speak  at  all,  a  fact  clearly  de- 
monstrated by  post-mortem  findings,  in 
219 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

which  the  brain  injury  has  been  limited  to 
the  conducting  fibers  of  Broca's  convolution 
only,  the  speech  centers  themselves  being  in- 
tact. But  this  capacity  for  sending  forth  new 
fibers  to  make  connections  diminishes  rapidly 
with  age ;  hence,  when  an  apoplectic  clot  ruins 
the  speech  centers  after  sixty  years  of  age, 
the  loss  of  speech  is  almost  invariably  per- 
manent, because  the  corresponding  speech 
convolutions  in  the  other  hemisphere  not  only 
are  unable  separately  to  learn  their  words, 
but  the  power  to  generate  new  connecting 
fibers  between  the  convolutions,  which  is 
equally  necessary  for  perfect  speech,  is  no 
longer  available. 

Throughout  the  preceding  discussion  some 
persons  may  find  it  difficult  to  accept  the 
demonstration  of  the  personal  will  as  an 
active  agent  in  fashioning  brain  matter, 
because  it  implies  that  a  purely  spiritual 
agency,  such  as  they  imagine  the  will  to  be, 
can  cause  definite  material  effects.  This  need 
not  be  wondered  at,  because  there  is  no  one 
220 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

word  about  which  the  fogs  of  metaphysics 
have  gathered  so  thickly  as  about  this  word 
*'Will."  We  advise  them  to  let  meta- 
physics alone  and  turn  their  attention  to 
the  actual  facts  which  we  have  been  consid- 
ering. A  brain  center  used  for  speaking  is 
certainly  an  actual  material  fact,  or  else  it 
could  not  be  destroyed  by  a  pointed  stick. 
How  this  material  thing  was  made  we  have 
shown  to  have  been  by  a  specific  nerve  stimu- 
lus repeatedly  acting  on  that  collection  of 
brain  cells  till  it  was  fashioned  accordingly. 
There  is  nothing  exceptional  about  this,  for 
so  are  numerous  other  nerve  centers  fash- 
ioned by  their  specific  nerve  stimuli.  Thus  a 
ray  of  light  is  a  specific  stimulus  to  the  nerve 
cells  of  the  retina,  from  which  this  stimulus 
is  propagated  by  the  optic  nerves  to  the  cells 
of  the  visual  area  in  the  posterior  lobe  of  the 
brain.  Now  the  effects  of  over-stimulation 
of  nerve  cells  have  been  experimentally  ob- 
served in  animals  by  exposing  one  eye  to  a 
strong  light,  while  the  other  was  left  dark, 
221 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

and  then  contrasting  the  appearance  of  the 
cells  which  had  been  overworked  with  those 
of  the  other  retina  which  were  kept  at  rest. 
The  first  effect  of  such  stimulation  is  to 
cause  the  nerve  cell  to  swell  by  absorption  of 
the  nutritive  lymph  in  which  it  is  bathed,  but 
as  it  becomes  fatigued  by  the  continuous 
stimulation  the  cell  shrinks,  its  nucleus  be- 
comes displaced  and  at  last  the  whole  cell 
becomes  disorganized  into  dead  stuff.  The 
chemical  results  of  this  degeneration  have 
been  studied  and  reported  to  be  a  change 
from  the  normal  protoplasm  of  the  cell  with 
its  phosphureted  fat  into  choline  and  a  non- 
phosphureted  neutral  fat.  But  this  is  just 
what  happens  to  the  nerve  fibers  and  nerve 
cells  in  a  small  spot  in  the  brain  motor  region, 
which  orders  the  right  thumb  and  forefinger 
to  hold  a  pen.  If  the  will  does  not  let  up  on 
this  order  enough  to  let  those  motor  nerves 
of  a  bookkeeper  have  a  rest  from  its  stimula- 
tion, we  have  a  case  of  writer's  palsy  with  the 
same  degeneration  of  motor  nerve  matter, 
222 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

and  as  a  result  total  atrophy  of  both  the 
nerves  and  the  muscles  which  they  supply. 
Here,  therefore,  the  will  has  ended  its  activ- 
ity with  precious  nerve  matter  turned  into 
poor  neutral  fat,  said  fat  being  no  more  a 
thing  of  metaphysics  than  a  tallow  candle  is. 
It  is  over-stimulation  in  both  cases,  but  the 
stimulus  of  light  comes  from  the  outside  and 
that  of  the  will  from  the  inside.  But  does 
the  latter  fact  make  the  will  less  of  a  reality 
than  light  is,  when  it  actually  causes  the  same 
kind  of  physical  and  chemical  changes  ? 

Another  important  conclusion  is  led  up  to 
by  these  facts,  namely,  that  we  can  make  our 
own  brains,  so  far  as  special  mental  functions 
or  aptitudes  are  concerned,  if  only  we  have 
wills  strong  enough  to  take  the  trouble.  By 
practice,  practice,  practice,  as  in  Miss  Kel- 
ler's case,  the  Will  stimulus  will  not  only 
organize  brain  centers  to  perform  new  func- 
tions, but  will  project  new  connecting,  or,  as 
they  are  technically  called,  association  fibers, 
which  will  make  nerve  centers  work  together 
223 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

as  they  could  not  without  being  thus  associ- 
ated. Each  such  self-created  brain  center 
requires  great  labor  to  make  it,  because  noth- 
ing but  the  prolonged  exertion  of  the  per- 
sonal will  can  fashion  anything  of  the  kind. 
He  cannot  do  it  by  proxy,  any  more  than  he 
can  make  a  new  German  shelf  in  his  brain 
speech  centers  by  proxy.  He  must  do  it  all 
himself,  though  he  may  have  to  spend  three 
years  in  Berlin  for  the  purpose.  A  person, 
therefore,  acquires  new  brain  capacities  by 
acquiring  new  anatomical  bases  for  them  in 
the  form  both  of  brain  cells,  which  he  has 
trained,  and  of  actively  working  brain  fibers, 
which  he  has  himself  virtually  created. 

But  nothing  could  show  better  than  these 
facts  the  complete  antithesis  between  per- 
sonality and  automatism.  One  might  as 
well  insist  that  because  an  automobile  car- 
riage goes  along  smoothly  and  mechanic- 
ally, that  the  driver,  who  makes  the  vehicle 
turn  any  number  of  street  corners,  must  also 
be  an  automaton,  as  to  say  that  a  person  who 
224 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

educates  his  brain  is  liimself  the  automatic 
product  of  the  brain  which  he  educates. 

This  series  of  facts  which  we  have  been 
reviewing  demonstrates  how  the  different 
places  in  one  hemisphere  come  to  subserve 
their  mental  functions  by  a  process  of  educa- 
tion carried  on  throughout  by  one  and  the 
same  teacher,  for  the  process  itself  never 
varies.  Moreover  it  is  plain  that  these  highly 
educated  areas  in  the  cortex  are  not  self- 
taught,  because  they  would  not  exist  only  in 
one  hemisphere  when  the  capacity  for  such 
education  was  certainly  originally  equal  in 
both.  But  what  is  that  teacher,  and  whence 
does  he  come  ?  It  is  not  easy  to  suppose  that 
any  part  of  the  brain  itself  can  act  as  such  a 
general  teacher,  because  no  cortical  area  ever 
interchanges  its  capacities  with  any  other. 
If  the  ear  grows  dull  of  hearing  the  eye  can- 
not help  it  hear  better,  nor  can  the  cuneus, 
while  indispensable  for  the  education  of  the 
word  seeing  angular  gyrus  which  is  a  part  of 
the  visual  area,  furnish  a  damaged  music 
225 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

center  in  the  temporal  lobe  with  a  single  note. 
But  so  persistent  has  been  the  hunt  for  some 
cerebral  place  which  created  the  personality 
that,  since  the  rest  of  the  cortex  has  been 
shown  to  subserve  merely  sensory  and  motor 
functions,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the 
limited  portion  called  the  prefrontal  lobe  (see 
Frontispiece)  is  the  special  mind  seat  in  the 
brain. 

As  this  region  differs  from  the  rest  of  the 
frontal  lobe  in  having  no  relation  to  motor, 
and  equally  none  to  sensory  functions,  so  that 
it  shows  no  signs  of  anything  in  particular 
when  experimented  upon,  it  has  been  sur- 
mised that  it  is  related  in  its  function  to  pure 
thinking,  or  to  the  mind  itself.  It  is  also 
claimed  that  it  is  more  developed  in  the 
human  than  in  any  other  brain.  The  chief 
reliance  for  the  support  of  this  theory,  how- 
ever, has  rested  upon  reports  of  the  effects 
in  man  of  accidents,  or  of  tumors,  or  such  like 
damage  to  this  locality,  upon  the  mental  func- 
tions. It  is  alleged  that  those  who  have  suf- 
fered from  lesions  of  this  sort  often  change 
226 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

in  disposition,  with  a  special  enfeeblement  of 
the  power  of  attention  and  of  thought  con- 
centration, along  with  consequent  apathy 
or  mental  dullness  amounting  sometimes  to 
dementia. 

But  just  such  mental  symptoms  often  ac- 
company damage  to  other  parts  than  this  of 
the  brain,  and  all  are  equally  susceptible  of 
interpretation  on  the  supposition  of  conse- 
quent derangements  of  the  cerebral  circula- 
tion. But  to  demonstrate  that  injury  to  the 
prefrontal  region  directly  causes  these  men- 
tal symptoms,  they  should  uniformly  accom- 
pany such  physical  changes.  This  is  so  far 
from  being  the  case  as  to  lead  Professor 
Schaf er  to  remark :  ^  "So  much  has  been 
made  of  certain  clinical  cases  in  which  an  ex- 
tensive lesion  of  the  frontal  lobes  was  fol- 
lowed by  diminution  of  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties, and  by  a  change  for  the  worse  in  the  gen- 
eral disposition  of  the  individual,  that  it  is 
important  to  ascertaiu  what  the  clinical  evi- 

1  Textbook  of  Physiology,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  772-77a 
227 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

dence  on  this  point  really  amounts  to.  Welt 
has  collected  fifty-nine  cases  of  lesions  con- 
fined to  the  frontal  region  in  man;  of  these 
forty-seven,  or  about  80  per  cent.,  showed  no 
changes  in  intellectual  capacity  or  character ; 
and  only  twelve  of  the  total  number,  or  20 
per  cent,  had  such  changes  recorded  against 
them.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  doc- 
trine of  special  localization  of  the  intellectual 
faculties  in  this  portion  of  the  frontal  lobes 
rests  on  no  sufficient  basis." 

On  p.  63  are  given  the  particulars  of  the  man 
who  had  one  hemisphere,  and  particularly  its 
frontal  part,  destroyed  by  disease,  without 
affecting  his  mind  at  all.  Fortunately  for 
him,  as  we  have  remarked,  it  was  his  wordless 
and  not  his  word-endowed  hemisphere  which 
was  involved.  Likewise  a  great  difference  is 
found  in  the  accompanying  mental  derange- 
ments of  frontal  lesions,  whether  they  occur 
in  the  wordless  hemisphere,  when  often  there 
are  no  mental  symptoms  at  all,  or  in  the  edu- 
cated half.  For  the  purposes  of  our  argu- 
228 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

ment,  we  might  readily  admit  that  the  frontal 
convolutions  can  be  taught  important  mental 
functions,  just  as  areas  in  the  occipital  and 
in  the  temporal  convolutions  are  thus  taught. 
But  until  it  can  be  shown  that  the  frontal  con- 
volutions think  at  all,  whether  they  have  been 
taught  or  not,  that  is,  that  the  frontal  lobes  of 
both  hemispheres  work  the  thinker,  all  these 
speculations  about  them  are  vain.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  the  prefrontal  convolutions 
of  the  educated  hemisphere  do  play  an  impor- 
tant part  in  mental  operations,  but  that  does 
not  show  that  they  are  a  whit  less  instru- 
ments than  the  angular  gyrus  is  in  its  reading 
function,  or  Broca's  convolution  in  its  func- 
tion. Of  the  four  strings  of  a  violin,  string 
A  is  struck  oftener  than  string  G  to  make 
music,  but  string  A  does  not  make  the  other 
strings  play;  much  less  is  it  itself  the  mu- 
sician. 

From  some  examples  in  my  own  experience 
I  would  infer  that  one  of  the  functions  of  the 
prefrontal  convolutions  in  the  speech  hemi- 
229 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

sphere  is  the  recognition  of  personal  identity. 
A  gentleman  once  consulted  me  in  my  office 
about  some  nervous  symptoms.  For  reasons 
unnecessary  to  detail  here  I  began  to  suspect 
that  he  might  be  suffering  from  the  effects  of 
a  brain  tumor,  but  the  most  careful  exami- 
nation failed  to  show  that  any  one  of  his 
special  senses,  on  being  separately  tested, 
was  affected  in  the  least,  nor  could  I  find  any 
motor  derangements.  His  speech  was  well 
articulated,  and  he  expressed  himself  clearly. 
Suddenly  he  said :  *  'Where  am  I  ?  Am  I  here 
or  somewhere  else?  Am  I  in  the  body  or  out 
of  it?"  These  remarks  confirmed  me  in  my 
suspicions  that  the  probable  seat  of  the  lesion 
was  in  the  left  frontal  lobe.  Some  months 
afterwards  my  surmise  was  proved  correct 
at  the  autopsy,  when  a  tumor  was  found  in 
that  very  place. 

We  may  remark  here  that  the  facts  about 
the  marvelous  processes  of  education  of  the 
speech  endowed  hemisphere  naturally  sug- 
gest the  question,  whether  the  elaboration  of 
230 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

so  many  interpreting  or  association  areas, 
with  their  consequent  maze  of  association 
fibers,  would  not  in  time  increase  the  actual 
amount  of  gray  matter  and  its  fibers  in  those 
localities  where  special  work  has  been  spent 
upon  them  by  the  individual. 

This  may  be  difficult  to  demonstrate  by  our 
present  imperfect  methods  of  physical  in- 
spection of  nervous  matter.  Though  func- 
tionally the  difference  is  wide  enough  be- 
tween a  purely  sensory  and  a  purely  motor 
nerve,  so  far  we  are  unable  to  see  which  is 
which,  and  we  have  to  irritate  or  to  cut  them 
to  find  out.  So  no  inspection  of  the  gray  mat- 
ter of  the  speech  centers  tells  us  any  more  of 
their  very  special  powers  than  the  inspection 
of  any  other  locality  in  a  given  cortical  area 
reveals  what  it  does  or  how  it  does  it.  About 
the  only  physical  sign  of  the  kind  yet  demon- 
strated is  the  presence  in  the  motor  area  of 
the  cortex  of  relatively  large  and  stellate- 
shaped  cells  which  resemble  in  these  particu- 
lar respects  the  cells  at  the  origin  of  the 
231 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

motor  nerves  of  the  spinal  cord.  But  all 
analogy  with  other  living  textures  would  lead 
us  to  infer  that  the  more  a  part  was  exer- 
cised, the  more  it  would  grow  in  its  special 
components,  and  hence  that  the  cortical  layers 
of  a  man,  sharing  fully  in  all  the  mental  ac- 
tivities of  modern  civilized  life,  would  be 
more  developed,  even  quantitatively,  than  the 
thoughtless  brains  of  a  Papuan  savage.  The 
only  way  in  which  such  increased  brain 
growth  could  occur  in  the  cranial  cavity 
would  be  by  increased  folding  of  the  gray 
cortex,  with  multiplication  of  its  associating 
fibers.  A  few  investigations  of  the  kind  have 
been  made  of  the  brains  of  men  distinguished 
for  varied  mental  acquisitions  during  life, 
and  when  compared  with  the  brains  of  sav- 
ages or  of  men  of  low  or  abnormal  intellectual 
grade,  they  seem  to  show,  though  with  some 
exceptions,  that  in  the  speech  centers  espe- 
cially, the  brains  of  highly  cultivated  men 
present  much  greater  complexity  in  the  con- 
volutions, with  greater  depth  of  the  fissures. 
232 


THE     BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

But  though  further  investigations  may  dem- 
onstrate fairly  constant  post-mortem  evi- 
dences in  the  form  of  increased  cortical  convo- 
lutions of  a  long  life  of  exceptional  mental 
activity,  this  would  not  prove  at  all  that  their 
subjects  became  eminent  because  they  were 
bom  with  such  convoluted  brains.  While  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  all  individuals  of  our  race 
are  not  born  with  equally  good  brains,  yet 
the  fact  remains  that  the  special  mental 
capacities  for  which  certain  men  have  become 
eminent  were  all  acquired  and  were  not  con- 
genital. Hence  the  utmost  which  can  be 
conceded  is  that  the  greater  aptitude  for  ac- 
quiring may  be  congenital,  but  nothing  more ; 
because  however  apt  a  man  may  be  in  learn- 
ing languages  or  in  mastering  mathematics, 
he  did  not  know  a  word,  nor  could  he  count 
two  when  he  was  born,  and  if  it  had  been  pos- 
sible to  examine  his  brain  when  he  was  four 
years  old,  there  would  not  have  been  found  a 
single  one  of  the  complicated  brain  folds 
which  he  had  when  he  was  sixty,  because  he 
233 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

made  all  these  latter  himself  by  persistent 
exercise.  In  other  words,  a  great  person- 
ality may  possibly  make  a  great  brain,  but 
no  brain  can  make  a  great  personality. 

To  sum  up.  Our  subject  deals  primarily 
with  material  facts.  Hence  it  is  in  no  sense 
a  speculative  subject,  because  anatomical  de- 
tails are  neither  speculative  nor  theoretical, 
and  we  have  been  concerned  with  the  anatomi- 
cal seats  of  mental  faculties.  We  began  with 
the  physical  anatomy  of  the  faculty  of  speech, 
which  demonstrates  that  the  reception,  the 
understanding  and  the  expression  of  words 
depend  as  absolutely  upon  a  special  brain 
mechanism  as  the  movements  of  the  hands  of 
a  watch  depend  upon  the  spring  inside.  But 
much  more  than  that.,  the  particular  anatomi- 
cal seats  of  human  intelligence  are  just  as 
palpably  demonstrable  as  the  seats  of  human 
language.  These  so-called  ' '  mind  ' '  areas  of 
brain  matter  are  found  grouped  around  the 
congenital  sense  areas,  and  it  is  by  them 
that  the  human  being  knows  what  to  think 
234 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

about  the  information  which  his  senses  bring. 
Cut  out  any  one  of  those  areas,  and  forthwith 
its  kind  of  intelligence  is  gone. 

The  most  materialistic  theory  of  the  rela- 
tion of  thought  to  brain  substance  could  not 
ask  for  more  solid  facts  to  support  its  con- 
tention, if  only  it  could  be  demonstrated  that 
these  brain  localities,  with  their  matchless 
endowments,  were  as  native  to  the  brain  as 
its  sensory  centers  are.  But  no  human  being 
ever  brought  with  him  a  single  one  of  these 
wondrous  places  in  his  brain,  nor  ever  in- 
herited them.  Yet  their  existence  must  some- 
how be  accounted  for.  No  question  about 
physical  life  equals  this  question  for  surpass- 
ing significance.  Not  being  native,  that  is, 
congenital,  it  follows  that  these  seats  of  men- 
tal faculty  must  all  be  artificially  acquired. 
It  is  equally  plain  that  the  process  by  which 
they  are  acquired  must  be  the  same  for  them 
all,  however  different  their  functions  be,  be- 
cause as  an  anatomical  fact  they  are  all  found 
in  only  one  of  the  two  hemispheres. 
235 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

This  feature,  therefore,  puts  an  entirely 
new  aspect  on  the  whole  matter.  No  longer 
can  we  suppose  that  the  pair  of  symmetrical 
brain  hemispheres  in  our  skulls  hold  just  the 
same  relations  to  the  functions  of  thought 
that  the  two  eyes  do  to  the  function  of  sight, 
or  the  two  ears  to  that  of  hearing;  because 
if  in  a  young  person  one  eye  be  covered,  the 
other  eye  does  not  have  to  wait  for  months 
before  it  can  learn  to  see  as  its  fellow  did, 
nor  if  one  ear  be  stopped  for  experiment  in 
a  person  after  fifty,  does  its  companion  ear 
then  prove  to  be  totally  deaf.  Hence,  while 
both  members  of  the  eye  and  ear  organs  are 
at  all  times  just  alike  in  their  work,  it  is 
surely  significant  that  with  the  two  brain 
hemispheres  it  is  entirely  different — so  dif- 
ferent indeed  that  no  contrast  could  be 
greater  than  that  existing  between  them  in 
their  capacity  for  mental  work. 

It  may  be  asked  by  some,  if  one  hemisphere 
is  not  used  for  thought,  then  of  what  use  is 
it?  The  answer  is  that  it  is  of  every  use  as 
236 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALIT\^ 

far  as  motion  and  feeling  are  concerned. 
Paralysis  and  numbness  or  loss  of  sensation 
of  the  left  side  of  the  body  are  serious  mis- 
fortunes to  a  right-handed  man,  though  he 
still  can  talk  and  think  as  well  as  ever. 

Physicians  frequently  meet  with  striking 
illustrations  of  this  one-sided  habitat  of  the 
mind.  A  man  who  was  one  of  the  strongest 
thinkers  and  one  of  the  greatest  masters  of 
English  style  that  I  have  ever  known,  had 
his  mind  totally  wrecked  one  morning  by  an 
apoplectic  clot.  But  though  he  lived  for 
months  afterwards  with  his  right  brain 
hemisphere  apparently  as  sound  as  ever,  yet 
he  could  not  recognize  the  dearly  loved  mem- 
bers of  his  family  either  by  sight  or  by  their 
voices.  His  intelligence  was  simply  suddenly 
annihilated  by  the  injury  in  his  left  hemi- 
sphere. The  fact  that  his  right  hemisphere 
remained  uninjured  availed  nothing,  because 
this  exceptional  musician  had  never  played 
with  that  right  violin,  and  now  that  it  was 
seventy  years  old  it  was  no  longer  musical. 
237 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

Therefore  it  is  a  Power  not  of  the  brain, 
because  it  is  the  masterful  personal  Will, 
which  makes  the  brain  human.  By  a  human 
brain  we  mean  one  which  has  been  slowly 
fashioned  into  an  instrument  by  which  the 
personality  can  recognize  and  know  all  things 
physical,  from  the  composition  of  a  pebble 
to  the  elements  of  a  fixed  star.  It  is  the  will 
alone  which  can  make  material  seats  for 
mind,  and  when  made  they  are  the  most  per- 
sonal things  in  a  man's  body.  In  fact  they 
are  the  only  examples  of  the  kind  in  his  phys- 
ical frame,  because,  though  he  cannot  make 
one  hair  of  his  head  white  or  black,  he  can 
and  does  make  speech  centers  inside  of  his 
head,  to  say  nothing  of  other  centers  of  most 
varied  faculty.  So  long  as  his  brain  matter 
has  not  become  *'set,"  as  potters  would  ex- 
press it,  by  the  lapse  of  years,  he  deals  with 
his  cortical  gray  matter  by  the  purposive  ex- 
ercise of  memorizing  habit,  as  the  potter 
deals  with  wet  clay.  And  wondrously  does 
he  fashion  it,  until  it  no  more  resembles  the 
238 


THE     BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

same  gray  matter  on  the  other  side  of  his 
head  in  mental  capacities,  than  unfashioned 
clay  resembles  a  Portland  vase.  How  could 
this  clay  itself  make  this  peerless  vase!  As 
the  educated  hemisphere  is  the  brain  of  man, 
while  its  fellow  remains  only  that  of  the  ani- 
mal Homo,  whence  comes  the  incalculable  dif- 
ference between  the  two  ! 

Considering  that  it  is  not  brain  which 
makes  man,  but  man  who  makes  one  of  his 
brain  hemispheres  human  in  mental  faculties 
we  might  even  say  that  if  a  human  person- 
ality would  enter  a  young  chimpanzee's  brain 
where  it  would  find  all  the  required  cerebral 
convolutions,  that  ape  could  then  grow  into 
a  true  inventor  or  philosopher. 

NOTE   ON  AlVIBIDEXTRY 

Since  the  first  edition  of  this  book  was  published  I  have 
received  many  letters,  three  from  University  Professors  of 
Psychology,  asking  whether,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
centers  for  speech  and  for  other  purely  mental  functions 
are  located  only  in  the  brain  hemisphere  related  to  the 
most  used  hand  in  early  life,  the  teaching  of  ambidextry 
to  children  would  not  be  a  great  advantage.     Some  of  my 

239 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

correspondents  seem  to  think  that  ambidextry  learned  early 
enough  would  lead  both  hemispheres  to  produce  thought, 
and  thus  increase  the  sum  of  mentality  by  the  added 
activities  of  brain  matter  ordinarily  unused.  But  this  con- 
ception is  negatived  by  the  physiological  fact,  discussed 
in  Chapter  IV,  which  shows  that  pair  organs  are  not  so 
for  the  purpose  of  doubling  or  even  of  increasing  faculty. 
We  hear  no  more  with  two  ears  than  we  hear  with  one. 
Hence,  no  gain  in  mental  capacity  would  accrue  from 
both  hemispheres  being  equally  educated. 

The  advantage,  however,  would  be  a  real  one  if  with 
both  hemispheres  educated  one  of  them  should  become 
incapacitated  by  injury  in  later  life,  for  then  its  fellow 
would  take  its  place  without  delay.  But,  unfortunately, 
it  is  very  doubtful  if  the  simultaneous  education  of  both 
hemispheres  is  possible.  The  anatomical  seats  of  mental 
fimctions  not  being  congenital,  like  those  connected  with 
the  functions  of  th*  eyes  and  ears,  their  mode  of  genesis 
is  totally  diflFerent.  As  they  are  fashioned  solely  by  the 
individual  while  growing  in  years,  they  remain  personal 
to  the  end,  and  hence,  can  be  neither  hereditary  nor  trans- 
missible. But  this  process  of  fashioning  is  so  slow  and 
laborious  that  apparently  it  is  never  attempted  with  both 
hemispheres,  simply  because  the  teaching  of  one  answers 
all  purposes.  By  a  habit  unconsciously  begun  in  the  hemi- 
sphere connected  with  the  hand  most  easily  used  by  the 
child,  the  habit  continues  for  life,  unless  the  individual 
is  forced  by  destructive  injury  to  the  first  educated  hemi- 
sphere to  take  up  the  training  of  its  uninjured  fellow. 
Instances  of  this  kind  are  mentioned  in  Chapter  VI,  page 
124.  But  nothing  short  of  such  necessity  will  induce  a 
person  to  cross  over  to  the  sound  but  hitherto  unused  hemi- 
sphere ito  begin  teaching  it,  because  such  an  undertaking 
would  be  literally  teaching  everything  from  A,  B,  C  up. 

We  may  remark  here,  in  passing,  that  the  fact  of  its 
ever  occurring  at  all  shows  that  this  migration  to  the  other 

240 


THE    BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

side  is  another  evidence  of  the  independent  existence  of  the 
personality.  In  such  a  case,  to  return  to  our  original 
illustration,  the  two  hemispheres  were  like  two  violins  lying 
together  in  the  same  cranial  box,  and  it  was  not  until  the 
musician  found  the  one  which  he  had  been  exclusively 
using  irretrievably  broken,  that  he  then  turned  to  the 
other  one  and  after  some  trouble  made  it  fit  to  play  with. 
But  he  alone  accounts  for  the  second  violin  becoming 
musical  at  all,  since  it  never  vibrated  with  a  single  note 
until  he  took  it  in  hand. 

Left-handed  children  are  often  compelled  to  become  ambi- 
dextrous by  obliging  them  to  learn  by  practice  to  use  the 
right  hand  as  freely  as  the  left.  But,  however  advan- 
tageous this  may  be  in  some  respects,  it  is  doubtful  if  such 
training  extends  to  anything  more  than  the  movements 
of  the  hand  muscles  themselves.  The  one  hemisphere  which 
was  first  led  to  talk  and  to  think  will  keep  on  doing  so 
irrespective  of  ambidextry,  because  the  hand  did  not  create 
a  speech  center,  bvit  only  served  to  start  its  first  beginnings 
as  such  until  it  became  a  habit,  which  experience  shows 
cannot  be  changed. 

I  have  been  asked  by  a  Professor  of  Psychology,  whether 
obliging  a  left-handed  child  to  use  the  right  hand  may  not 
delay  its  learning  to  speak,  by  confusing  the  normal  process 
of  development  in  its  right  hemisphere  of  speech  centers. 
I  am  strongly  inclined  to  believe  that  this  may  happen 
from  a  case  in  my  own  experience  of  the  only  left-handed 
child  in  a  family  of  four  sons  and  three  daughters.  Her 
left  hand  was  tied  in  early  childhood  till  she  used  the  right 
hand  well,  but  whereas  the  other  children  learned  to  speak 
early,  one  sister  remarkably  well  at  only  fifteen  months  of 
age,  she  was  fully  six  years  old  before  she  could  talk 
plainly,  though  in  all  other  mental  respects  she  was  in  no 
way  behind  any  of  the  rest  of  the  family. 


241 


CHAPTER  IX 

PRACTICAL  APPLICATIONS 

We  have  definitely  concluded  that  the  facts 
both  of  brain  anatomy  and  of  brain  physi- 
ology indicate  that  this  organ  of  the  person- 
ality is  never  other  than  its  instrument, 
while  the  personality  itself  is  as  different  and 
as  separate  from  it  as  the  violinist  is  separate 
from,  and  not  the  product  of  his  violin. 

As  already  demonstrated,  one  of  the  prop- 
erties of  the  personal  human  will  is  that  of 
being  a  specific  brain  stimulus,  more  potent 
than  all  the  afferent  stimuli  together  in  pro- 
ducing changes  in  brain  matter,  by  which  the 
brain  acquires,  and  by  it  alone,  entirely  new 
powers  or  functions  not  possible  in  any  other 
animal  brain.  This  great  truth  would  suf- 
fice of  itself  to  prove  that  the  Will  is  a  new 
thing,  for  the  only  other  fashioner  of  nerve 
242 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

tissue  is  the  Afferent,  and  we  have  shown 
that  in  their  fashioning  processes  the  Affer- 
ent and  the  Will  are  generically  distinct,  and 
have  no  relationship  to  each  other. 

Indeed,  as  a  final  contrast,  we  may  say  that 
the  Afferent  can  do  nothing  new  any  more 
than  a  watch  can.  Whatever  a  watch  does 
is  the  result  of  pre-arrangement  in  its  mech- 
anism. Likewise  a  nervous  center  is  so 
slowly  organized  by  the  mechanically  acting 
Afferent — evidently  requiring  the  co-opera- 
tion of  heredity  for  many  generations — that 
it  will  do  only  one  thing  during  life  and  no 
other.  But  a  Will  act,  ordinarily  called  a 
voluntary  act,  is  not  often  just  the  same  thing 
when  repeated.  The  variety  of  voluntary 
acts  is  practically  unlimited,  on  account  of  a 
profound  principle  underlying  Will  by  virtue 
of  its  own  nature,  namely,  perfect  freedom. 

Having  recognized  what  a  portentous 
change  comes  over  the  whole  situation  by  the 
entrance  of  this  highest  attribute  of  person- 
ality, nothing  could  exceed  the  importance 
243 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

of  showing  what,  according  to  physiology,  is 
the  rightful  place  and  rank  of  the  Will  in  a 
human  being.  This  question  of  rank  is  an 
actual  and  not  a  theoretical  one  in  the  con- 
sideration of  any  subject  in  nervous  physi- 
ology. As  we  have  remarked  before,  it  is 
only  in  a  nervous  system  that  the  element  of 
rank  has  any  place.  But  there  it  is  all  im- 
portant, because  no  principle  is  more  funda- 
mental than  that  of  control  of  the  working 
of  all  the  lower  nerve  centers  by  the  centers 
which  are  higher  than  they  in  the  scale  and 
in  the  time  of  their  development.  Therefore 
what  is  and  always  should  be  the  governing 
power  in  our  living  selves  is  a  proper  subject 
of  physiology  as  well  as  of  philosophy. 

Approaching  this  subject,  therefore,  from 
the  side  of  physiology,  we  must  begin  by  re- 
ferring to  what  is  said  on  pp.  157-9  about 
Inhibition.  It  is  well  for  the  ordinary  reader 
to  appreciate  the  importance  which  is  at- 
tached to  inhibition,  as  its  technical  term  is, 
by  physiologists  in  their  interpretation  of 
244 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

nervous  functions.  Without  inhibition  no  or- 
ganization of  a  nervous  system  would  be  pos- 
sible; and  therefore  we  may  explain  again 
that  by  this  term  is  meant  that  the  operations 
of  nervous  centers,  instead  of  being  allowed 
to  go  on  independently,  are  constantly  con- 
trolled, restrained,  checked,  or  altogether 
suspended  from  moment  to  moment,  accord- 
ing to  time  needs,  by  the  direct  intervention, 
that  is,  '*  inhibition  "  of  other  nerve  centers, 
or  even  sometimes  by  nerves  specially  en- 
dowed with  this  restraining  power. 

We  there  cited  in  illustration  how  the  me- 
dulla oblongata  sends  a  bundle  of  nerve  fibers 
to  the  heart,  called  the  heart  accelerators, 
which  make  it  beat  faster,  while  it  also  sup- 
plies an  important  strand  of  nerves  which 
bridle  the  heart  and  make  it  beat  slowly  and 
deliberately.  But  the  reader  may  consult  a 
modern  text-book  of  physiology  to  find  an- 
other striking  illustration  of  nervous  regula- 
tion of  the  heart,  under  the  title,  the  De- 
pressor Nerve.  Ever  since  Ludwig  and  Cyon 
245 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

first  discovered  the  function  of  this  small 
nerve  in  1866,  physiologists  have  been 
greatly  interested  in  its  unique  properties, 
one  being,  as  demonstrated  by  its  first  dis- 
coverers, that  it  can  quickly  lower  the  pres- 
sure of  the  blood  in  the  arteries  all  over  the 
body  from  30  to  50  per  cent.  To  understand 
this  it  should  be  stated  that  in  the  medulla 
oblongata  there  is  the  center  governing  the 
entire  and  most  extensive  system  of  special 
nerves  which  ramify  on  the  coats  of  the  arter- 
ies, and  whose  business  it  is  to  regulate  the 
caliber  of  the  arteries  so  that  their  diameter 
becomes  large  or  small  according  to  whether 
the  part  which  the  arteries  supply  needs  more 
or  less  blood.  Thus,  the  stomach  needs  nine 
times  more  blood  when  actively  digesting  its 
contents  than  when  it  is  empty,  and  the  vaso- 
motor nerves,  as  they  are  called,  of  its  arter- 
ies dilate  the  arteries  to  bring  more  blood,  or 
contract  them  to  shut  it  off,  as  the  need  may 
be.  The  function  of  these  nerves,  therefore, 
is  of  prime  importance,  for  without  their  con- 
246 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

stricting  action  the  vessels  of  the  abdominal 
organs  alone  might  relax  enough  to  contain 
most  of  the  blood  of  the  body,  as  sometimes 
happens  with  quickly  fatal  results.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  during  violent  muscular  ex- 
ercise or  under  excitement,  the  blood  may  be 
driven  to  the  heart  so  fast  that  its  cavities 
become  dangerously  distended.  Then  it  is 
that  the  Depressor  Nerve  instantly  comes  to 
the  rescue.  Ignoring  its  automatic  nature, 
we  may  figuratively  represent  it  addressing 
the  medulla  thus:  ''  Make  haste!  Emer- 
gency! Heart  overfilling  and  distending  so 
with  blood  that  a  valve  may  give  way !  Tell 
your  vaso-constrictor  center  instantly  to 
order  all  its  nerves  to  relax  their  grip  on  the 
arteries  the  body  over,  to  the  degree  which 
I  direct.  Order  the  accelerator  center  to  sus- 
pend operations ;  and  the  vagus  center  to  give 
an  extra  turn  to  its  brakes !  ' '  The  medulla 
obeys,  and  the  over-full  heart  immediately  re- 
lieves itself  by  a  general  widening  of  its 
arterial  channels.  Thus  we  find  this  single 
247 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

afferent  nerve  capable  of  inhibiting  the 
action  of  the  whole  vast  mechanism  of  the 
artery  constrictors,  so  that  when  this  nerve 
has  been  experimentally  stimulated  by  an 
electric  current,  the  tongue  swells  from  its 
arteries  being  dilated,  and  likewise  the  kid- 
neys are  flushed  red  with  blood.  Also,  unlike 
other  nerves,  it  cannot  be  fatigued  or  ex- 
hausted by  prolonged  stimulation,  so  that  in 
every  respect  it  is  like  a  sleepless,  tireless 
sentinel  posted  at  the  great  gate  of  the 
heart's  outflow. 

These  are  only  illustrations  of  the  nervous 
mechanism  before  there  is  added  to  it  a  sin- 
gle one  of  the  great  brain  ganglia  with  their 
high  and  complex  functions.  If  in  the  array 
of  the  spinal  centers  we  find  at  every  turn 
special  disciplinary  arrangements  in  the 
shape  of  specific  appointments,  so  to  speak, 
of  nerve  centers  with  their  special  nerves  to 
act  as  checks  or  controls  over  the  whole  sys- 
tem, we  will  find  still  plainer  illustrations  of 
the  function  of  Inhibition  or  control  in  the 
248 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

great  army  of  cerebral  centers.  Wliole  tracts 
of  nerve  fibers  descend  from  the  brain,  cours- 
ing along  the  nervous  strands  of  the  cord  till 
each  fiber  ends  at,  but  not  in,  a  spinal  nerve 
cell.  Forthwith  that  nerve  fiber  rules  the 
spinal  nerve  cell  absolutely,  by  directing  how 
it  is  to  act  and  do  this  or  that  according  to 
conunands  coming  from  above.  The  spinal 
motor  cells  move  all  bones  of  the  body  by  the 
muscles  attached  to  them,  as  we  have  said, 
but  every  such  movement  is  subject  to  the 
behest  of  the  brain  fiber. 

But  just  as  there  are  fibers  passing  from 
the  brain  above  to  the  cord  below,  so  all  cere- 
bral collections  of  gray  matter  have  fibers 
coursing  between  them.  These,  as  we  have 
stated  before,  are  called  Association  fibers,  as 
they  pass  from  lobe  to  lobe,  from  lobule  to 
lobule,  and  from  convolution  to  convolution. 
That  these  extremely  numerous  connections 
between  the  cortical  centers  with  each  other 
are  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  different 
functions  of  each  into  communication  and  re- 
249 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

lation  with  the  others,  is  not  doubted  by  any; 
one.  According  to  all  precedent  in  the  ner- 
vous  system,  it  follows  that  this  anatomical 
fact  indicates  that  the  great  law  of  inhibition 
must  be  the  necessary  law  governing  the  men- 
tal operations  of  the  brain  itself.  Each 
thinking  center,  acting  by  itself,  without  be- 
ing controlled  by  other  centers,  would  in- 
evitably act  foolishly.  This  is  the  reason  of 
the  absurdity  of  dreams.  In  dreams  some 
nerve  centers  happen  to  awaken  by  them- 
selves, and  thus  start  ideas  without  any  con- 
trol or  correction  from  other  nerve  centers 
which  are  still  asleep,  and  which  if  they  were 
also  awake  would  tell  them:  **  That  is  not 
true;  stop,  till  I  think  with  you!  " 

The  facts  of  delirium  are  also  best  ex- 
plained as  a  result  of  the  suspension,  through 
paralysis  of  their  inhibitory  nerves,  of  the 
control  of  higher  centers  over  lower  ones, 
which  then  run  riot  with  their  unchecked 
fancies  or  ideas.  That  this  is  true  is  proven 
by  the  fact  that  just  such  disorders  can  be 
250 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

imitated  by  administering  agents  like  opimn 
and  alcohol,  which,  as  we  know  by  experi- 
ments on  animals,  have  this  same  property 
of  paralyzing  nerve  inhibition,  whether  in  the 
brain  or  in  the  spinal  cord.  A  well-balanced 
brain,  therefore,  is  one  which,  when  some  one 
center  starts  an  idea,  waits  till  the  answer 
comes  from  all  the  other  nerve  centers  which 
have  communicating  fibers  with  that  center 
as  to  what  they  also  think  about  it. 

One  other  fact  also  should  be  mentioned 
here.  *'As  quick  as  thought"  is  a  prover- 
bial phrase  which  a  physiologist  would  not 
care  to  use,  for  he  has  ingeniously  devised 
means  by  which  to  measure  the  rate  of  trans- 
mission of  a  nerve  impulse  both  up  a  sensory 
nerve  and  down  a  motor  one,  with  the  result 
that  it  averages  about  180  feet  a  second  in  the 
first,  and  160  in  the  second  instance.  Now 
some  have  imagined  that  nerve  currents  are 
somehow  allied  to  electrical  currents,  but 
while  the  nerve  current  vibration  travels  not 
more  than  200  feet,  an  electrical  current  dur- 
251 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

ing  the  same  time  traverses  a  copper  wire  at 
the  rate  of  180,000  miles  a  second.  Between 
the  two,  therefore,  there  is  a  greater  dis- 
parity than  between  the  fastest  of  express 
trains  and  the  slowest  crawl  of  a  snail.  More 
than  that,  when  an  afferent  stimulus  reaches 
a  nerve  center  a  marked  delay  occurs  before 
an  efferent  response  emerges  from  that  cen- 
ter. As  Sir  Michael  Foster  expresses  it: 
**  The  advent  of  an  afferent  impression  by 
the  afferent  nerve  is  a  busy  time  for  the  cen- 
ter, during  which  many  processes,  of  which 
we  have  very  little  exact  knowledge,  are  be- 
ing carried  on  in  it. ' '  It  takes  some  time  to 
deliberate  what  it  will  do.  The  shortest 
period  of  a  reflex  act  has  also  been  measured 
in  a  few  simple  reflex  arcs,  only  to  show  that 
the  delay  at  the  center  exceeds  in  time  both 
afferent  inflow  and  efferent  outflow.  Hence 
when  several  nerve  centers  have  to  adjust 
themselves  to  know  what  they  are  all  to  do 
about  some  afferent  excitation,  one  center 
sometimes  inhibiting  the  other  during  the 
252 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

process,  the  final  outcome  may  seem  to  be  a 
very  deliberate  affair.  Without  knowing  it, 
therefore,  a  man  may  have  good  physiology 
in  his  exclamation, — *'  If  only  I  had  stopped 
to  think!  '» 

But  to  return  to  the  subject  of  the  physio- 
logical rank  of  the  Will.  As  we  have  ex- 
plained before,  the  higher  centers  do  not  sup- 
press or  abolish  the  functions  of  the  lower 
centers,  but  restrain,  regulate  and  direct 
them  instead.  They,  in  fact,  establish  their 
prerogative  to  govern  by  governing,  and 
when  needful  they  soon  prove  their  title  by 
doing  so. 

We  have  already  demonstrated  the  mighty 
work  of  the  will  in  dealing  with  brain  matter 
as  the  potter  does  with  clay,  and  that  it  is 
the  will  alone  that  has  that  power.  But  on 
that  same  account  we  are  now  to  show  that 
in  thus  making  an  instrument  for  the  mind 
to  use,  the  Will  is  higher  than  the  Mind,  and 
hence  that  its  rightful  prerogative  is  to  gov- 
ern and  to  direct  the  mind,  just  as  it  is  the 
253 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

prerogative  of  the  mind  to  govern  and  direct 
the  body.  No  teaching  of  physiology  is  more 
important  than  this,  and  its  truth  is  empha- 
sized by  the  great  facts  of  human  life  which 
themselves  both  illustrate  and  confirm  it. 

Thus  the  rule  is  universal  that  the  higher 
in  rank  is  responsible  for  the  behavior  of  the 
lower.  Hence  it  is  that  with  the  advent  of 
the  human  Will  there  enters  a  principle  into 
the  living  world  which  is  entirely  new,  be- 
cause nothing  like  it  is  recognizable  anywhere 
else.  This  principle  pertains,  and  is  applica- 
ble, to  man  alone,  and  not  to  any  other  crea- 
ture on  earth.  So  transcendent  in  its  bearings 
and  applications  is  this  principle,  that  we 
may  well  pause  to  note  what  it  implies  about 
the  real  nature  of  the  human  will,  because, 
owing  solely  to  what  his  will  is,  on  man  alone 
rests  the  weight  of  Personal  Responsibility. 
Therefore  man  himself  cannot  possibly  be  a 
living  machine,  however  much  his  mind  may 
answer  to  that  description,  for  no  machine 
can  be  responsible  for  anything,  because  a 
254 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

machine  can  do  only  what  it  is  constructed 
for.  Nor  can  a  mere  animal  be  held  responsi- 
ble for  anything,  for  even  though  it  be  high 
enough  in  the  scale  to  have  a  mind,  and  some 
animals  certainly  do  have  minds,  yet  they 
are  virtually  so  fully  the  creatures  of  the 
mechanical  Afferent  that  they  have  no  true 
power  of  choice.  But  man  can  always  do  or 
not  do  as  he  chooses,  or,  in  other  words,  wills. 
Therefore  this  very  different  thing,  his  will, 
makes  him  different  from  every  other 
earthly  living  thing.  Therefore  something 
is  expected  and  taken  for  granted  about  him, 
which  is  not  expected  of  any  other  being.  Li 
fact  man  reigns  here  below  only  because  he 
is  responsible,  and  it  is  his  will  alone  which 
makes  him  responsible. 

Human  responsibility,  on  account  of  man*s 
possession  of  a  virtually  all-controlling  will, 
if  he  chooses  to  exercise  it,  is  such  an  unwel- 
come doctrine  to  many  reasoners  that  every 
effort  has  been  made  to  disprove  the  freedom 
of  the  will.  "We,  however,  cannot  follow  this 
255 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

contention  when  it  travels  off  into  the  far 
fields  of  metaphysics,  except  just  enough  to 
enable  us  to  bring  the  disputant  back  to  our 
province  of  physiology. 

Thus  it  is  contended  that  the  human  will 
is  not  free  because  it  is  itself  the  product  of 
motives.  As  Spinoza  expressed  it,  men  are 
free  as  to  their  acts,  but  not  free  as  to  the 
motives  which  determine  these  acts.  A 
motiveless  will  is  no  will  at  all,  because  a  will 
can  act  only  as  it  has  a  motive  or  motives, 
and,  therefore,  it  cannot  exist  apart  from 
motives.  Hence,  as  it  is  the  motives  which 
make  the  will,  man's  will  is  not  free,  simply 
because  it  has  to  submit  to  the  strongest 
motive. 

The  fatal  flaw  in  this  reasoning  is  that  it 
confounds  a  thing  with  the  conditions  of  a 
thing.  One  might  as  well  deny  the  power  of 
steam,  because  it  cannot  do  anything  with- 
out first  being  confined  within  the  sides  of  a 
boiler,  as  to  deny  the  power  of  the  will  be- 
cause its  operations  are  always  conditioned 
256 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

by  motives.  A  steam  engine  may  be  a  perfect 
engine,  but  it  may  work  very  feebly  if  it  has 
not  enough  steam.  So  a  man  may  have  and 
may  appreciate  to  the  utmost,  all  the  motives 
for  a  given  line  of  conduct,  but  may  weep, 
not  because  of  lack  of  motives,  but  from  lack 
of  will  power  to  act  upon  those  motives.  In 
our  concluding  chapter  we  will  allude  to  a 
great  physiological  reason  for  this  too  fre- 
quent lament. 

But,  after  all,  the  practical  experience  of 
human  life  is  the  best  test  of  the  truth  of 
any  theories,  and  especially  of  metaphysical 
theories.  Men  have  never  doubted  the  fact 
of  human  responsibility,  nor  the  reason  why 
every  man  is  responsible. 

One  illustration  of  this  truth  will  suffice. 
Go  into  any  court  of  law  on  earth,  whether 
in  America,  in  Europe,  in  Turkey  or  in  China, 
and  see  there  the  criminal  and  the  judge. 
Can  the  criminal  in  effect  say  anywhere  or 
in  any  language,  "  0  Judge,  you  should  not 
punish  me,  a  poQr  machine,  whose  efferent 
257 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

acts  are  the  necessary  result  of  my  afferent 
impnlses!  Think  in  my  case  how  old,  how 
hereditary  and  natural  the  afferent  impulse 
was.  I  was  starving,  and  in  order  to  eat  I 
stole."  The  reply  of  any  judge  the  world 
over  to  such  a  plea  would  have  to  be  the  same, 
for  there  is  one  hmnan  fact  upon  which  all 
human  law  is  based.  It  assumes  that  there 
is  a  central  power  in  every  man  which  must 
be  stronger  than  impulse,  whether  single  or 
multiform,  and  that  men  must  be  punished 
if  it  is  not  thus  stronger.  The  judge,  there- 
fore, answers  to  such  pleading:  **  You  are 
a  man,  and  so  have  the  power  of  choice.  How- 
ever strong  and  however  numerous  or  sud- 
den the  impulses  of  passion  or  the  cravings 
of  nature  may  be,  you  still  have  within  you 
the  ability  to  choose  not  to  yield  to  those  im- 
pulses, and  on  that  account  alone  I  am  here 
to  judge  you.  If  you  did  not  have  that  power, 
I  could  have  no  jurisdiction  over  you.  If  you 
were  a  mere  animal,  a  noble  lion  or  a  cun- 
ning ape,  or  anything  like  them,  you  would 
258 


PRACTICAL   APPLICATIONS 

not  be  brought  here  before  me  whatever  you 
did.  But  because  you  are  a  man,  and  as  a 
man  have  the  power  of  choice,  you  now  find 
yourself  in  court,  because  when  you  were 
hungry  you  did  not  act  like  a  man  but  like  a 
hungry  animal,  and  you  shall  be  punished 
because  you  did  act  like  an  animal.'* 

This  illustration  is  enough  to  prove  at 
once  that  the  power  of  choice,  or,  in  other 
words,  the  Will,  in  man,  cannot  possibly  be 
mechanical  or  the  product  of  afferent  im- 
pulse, because  it  is  plainly  above  impulse  or 
else  it  would  not  be  expected  always  to  rule 
impulse.  Therefore  it  must  be  free  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  Afferent,  for  if  it  were  not 
thus  free,  there  would  be  no  responsibility; 
and  if  there  be  no  responsibility,  then  there 
can  be  no  human  law  whatever.  To  admit 
that  this  principle  can  ever  have  an  excep- 
tion in  law,  whereby  impulse  could  ever  law- 
fully become  stronger  than  the  will,  would 
be  forthwith  the  abrogation  of  all  law.  Law's 
very  existence  depends  upon  the  responsi- 
259 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

bility  of  men,  because  they  have  a  will  which 
always  ought  to  be  the  master  and  not  the 
slave,  still  less  the  product  of  afferent  im- 
pulse. 

Such  being  the  presumption  of  all  human 
law  about  the  rank  of  the  will  as  regards  con- 
duct, what  do  the  facts  of  human  life  in  gen- 
eral testify  as  to  the  relative  station  of  the 
mind  and  the  will?  Chief  among  the  facul- 
ties of  the  human  mind  are  memory,  imagina- 
tion, speech,  knowledge,  conception  and 
judgment;  this  last  leading  to  the  mind's 
highest  attribute.  Reason.  No  wonder,  that 
these  splendid  endowments  should  lead  many 
to  think  that  there  can  be  nothing  higher  in 
us  than  the  mind.  But  in  the  order  of  de- 
velopment, physiology  emphatically  states, 
and  the  whole  world  proves  it  to  be  true,  that 
the  mind  is  not  only  the  subordinate,  but  well 
nigh  invariably  the  merest  servant  in  man  of 
the  will,  and  by  it  often  as  despotically  ruled 
as  the  mind  in  turn  often  despotically  rules 
the  body. 

260 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

One  proof  of  the  secondary  place  held  by 
the  mind,  the  significance  of  which  is  often 
not  sufficiently  appreciated, "  is  the  fact  that 
the  mind  is  easily  detached  from  the  per- 
sonality, while  such  is  never  the  case  with 
the  will.  The  mind  is  so  detachable  that  it 
can  be  made  to  work  like  any  other  machine, 
as  its  owner  sees  fit.  A  prominent  body  of 
professional  men  among  us  live  by  letting 
out  the  entire  equipment  of  their  mental 
faculties  for  hire.  After  a  lawyer  has  ac- 
cepted a  retainer,  he  commands  his  mind 
forthwith  to  busy  itself  with  all  its  resources 
of  reasoning  and  of  persuasion  for  the  party 
who  pays  him.  Even  his  emotions,  from  the 
extremes  of  pathos  to  those  of  indignation, 
may  be  pressed  into  the  service  as  well.  But 
no  man  can  let  out  his  will  for  hire,  and  he 
lies  when  he  pretends  to.  The  will  refuses 
to  be  displaced  from  the  personality  by  any- 
thing on  earth,  or  sometimes  in  heaven. 

But  this  subject  wears  a  grave  aspect  when 
it  is  recognized  that,  owing  to  its  original  pre- 
261 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

rogative,  the  Will  always  holds  a  retainer  on 
the  Reason  in  practical  life.  The  Reason  may 
sometimes  timidly  propose  to  its  master  a 
series  of  arguments  which  it  knows  will  not 
be  welcome,  only  to  be  ordered  to  come  back 
again  with  a  more  acceptable  line  of  "  rea- 
sons." It  is  this  fact  which  explains  why 
opinions,  either  political  or  religious,  can  and 
do  have  well-defined  geographical  rather 
than  mental  boundaries.  The  Strait  of 
Calais  is  like  a  rivulet  compared  to  the  his- 
torical separation  between  the  English  and 
French  views;  while  as  to  the  Strait  of  Gi- 
braltar, Morocco  is  much  farther  away  from 
all  Europe  in  every  belief  and  principle  than 
Japan.  But  one  especial  historical  illustra- 
tion of  this  truth  we  had  in  America.  Before 
the  year  1861  a  boundary,  called,  after  two 
surveyors,  Mason 's  and  Dixon 's  line,  divided 
the  United  States,  not  only  geographically  but 
politically,  intellectually  and  morally.  Not- 
withstanding all  the  sophistries  about  other 
issues,  there  lay,  as  Lincoln  said  in  his  im- 
262 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

mortal  second  Inaugural,  as  the  chief  cause 
of  all  the  fierce  antagonism  between  the  two 
geographical  sections  of  the  country,  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  about  the  institution  of 
African  slavery.  "Was  it  because  the  reason- 
ing faculties  differed  so  between  these  two 
sections  of  the  same  English-bom  race  ?  On 
one  side  of  the  line  most  men  and  women 
reasoned,  and  so  supposed  that  they  believed, 
that  slavery  was  the  sum  of  all  evil;  on  the 
other  side,  most  men  and  women  reasoned, 
till  they  supposed  that  they  believed,  that 
slavery  was  a  good,  if  not  a  divine,  institution. 
Nor  was  the  dispute  settled  by  reasoning. 

Some  would-be  reformers  or  philanthro- 
pists appear  to  rely  upon  increase  of  knowl- 
edge or  of  information  in  the  world  as  the 
cure  for  the  world's  evils.  If  men's  minds 
were  but  enlightened,  then  everything  would 
go  well !  The  physiologist  can  only  point  out 
that  such  people,  owing  to  their  unfamiliar- 
ity  with  the  constitution  of  this  court,  are  ad- 
dressing the  wrong  official.  Reason  undoubt- 
263 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

edly  does  hold  a  high  position  at  this  court 
which  no  one  can  justly  disparage,  but  at  best 
it  is  only  an  adviser  of  its  sovereign.  In  the 
future,  as  this  master  improves  in  motives, 
this  official  will  doubtless  be  promoted  with 
an  increase  of  authority.  But  as  the  world 
is  still  constituted,  the  influence  of  Reason 
with  the  power  which  actually  rules  is  at  all 
times  uncertain,  because  the  effect  depends 
on  how  the  ruler  is  otherwise  disposed. 
Should  the  Reason  venture  to  be  importunate, 
it  meets  with  the  summary  answer  of  the 
Roman  Caesar:  Sic  volo,  sic  juheo,  stet  pro 
ratione  voluntas  (So  I  will,  so  I  command: 
For  a  reason  let  the  wish  stand) ! 

Therefore  gain  the  ear  of  the  "Will  first,  and 
everything  naturally,  because  physiologi- 
cally, follows.  The  world  is  to  improve,  not 
by  an  increase  of  knowing  people  (desirable 
as  that  is),  but  by  an  increase  among  its  in- 
habitants of  people  with  benevolent  wills. 

One  phase  of  this  subject  deserves  notice. 
Though  the  mind  is  so  detachable  from  the 
264 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

real  self,  men  nevertheless  are  constantly 
liable  to  confound  it  with  the  self.    No  mi  a- 
take  is  greater  and  yet  so  common.     Thus 
when  on  occasion  this  retained  lawyer  of  the 
will  is  directed  to  reason  and  to  talk  volubly 
on  all  righteousness,  men  are  deceived  into 
believing  that  those  who  can  talk  so  well  must 
themselves  be  good.    Both  Seneca  and  Lord 
Bacon  were  among  the  meanest  men  of  their 
bad  times.    The  Roman's  Moral  Maxims  are 
admired  to  this  day,  but  he  was  the  man  who 
scandalized    even    the    hardened    cynics    of 
Nero's   Rome   by   rising  in   the   Senate   to 
eulogize  Nero  for  ripping  open  the  body  of 
his  mother  to  see  the  womb  that  bore  him. 
Indeed  some  men  may  be  observed  who,  for 
the  creditable  showing  virtuous  declamation 
makes,  proceed  to  display  their  own  gifts  of 
eloquence    about    goodness,    much   as    they 
would  lead  out  a  horse  to  show  his  fine  points. 
Another  important  aspect  of  the  relation 
of  the  Will  to  the  Mind  is  that  just  as  with 
the  creation  of  speech  centers,  the  will  like- 
265 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

wise  so  alters  the  brain  that  in  time  the  brain 
thinks  only  according  to  certain  habitual 
ways.  Some  strong  but  elderly  men  of  my 
acquaintance,  whose  reasoning  powers  no 
one  could  pronounce  weak,  seem  no  more 
able  to  change  their  opinions  than  they  could 
learn  readily  Turkish  or  Chinese.  As  a  rule, 
it  is  only  in  the  third  or  fourth  decennials  of 
life  that  men's  minds  show  any  capacity  to 
be  "  converted  "  on  any  important  matter 
of  opinion.  The  cause  for  this  is  not  from 
any  enfeeblement  of  judgment  attendant  on 
the  advent  of  middle  age.  Instead,  the  judg- 
ment as  a  faculty  should  then  be  much 
stronger  than  in  youth,  as  indeed  it  generally 
proves  to  be  if  left  free  to  act.  But  as  the 
years  pass,  the  judgment  is  less  and  less  free 
to  act.  Those  will  elements,  likes  and  dis- 
likes, in  proportion  to  their  intensity  and 
duration,  have  steadily  been  fashioning  the 
mind's  physical  instrument  to  work  out  only 
opinions  to  match,  until  to  have  new  opinions 
they  need  to  have  literally  new  brains.  The 
266 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

utmost  that  reason  at  any  time  can  do  is  to 
persuade  its  master  by  adducing  other 
motives,  but  an  adult  man  who  can  be  con- 
vinced against  his  will  is  well  nigh  a  physi- 
ological impossibility. 

"Why  this  is  so  we  now  see  clearly.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  men  ever  really  hold 
opinions  which  to  them  appear  unreasonable. 
Their  wills  take  good  care  that  their  reason- 
ing servant  should  always  supply  them  with 
all  the  reasons  which  they  want,  and  very 
well  does  this  servant  furnish  its  master  with 
most  cogent  arguments  to  show  the  great 
''reasonableness"  of  his  views,  especially  if 
his  master's  interests,  that  is,  wishes,  are 
strongly  enlisted. 

Men's  interests  come  to  them  from  such 
sources  as  their  parentage,  birthplace,  party 
or  sect,  and  the  influences  of  these  factors  in 
life  sway  their  reasoning  as  naturally  and 
irresistibly  as  the  wind  carries  with  it  the 
dust  of  a  road.  This  subservience  of  reason 
to  the  will  is  simply  physiological,  and  there- 
267 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

fore  so  unconscious  that  it  is  in  no  sense  hypo- 
critical or  insincere,  however  some  may  won- 
der at  the  intellectual  feats  in  reasoning  of 
those  who  have  differed  from  them,  not  in 
mental  faculty,  but  in  their  native  environ- 
ment. No  one  should  wonder  at  or  resent 
any  reasoning  as  such,  for  this  subordinate  in 
man  has  to  do  as  he  is  bidden  by  his  master. 
In  short,  the  world  has  yet  to  learn,  once  for 
all,  that  men  are  not  to  be  justified  nor  con- 
demned by  such  superficial  things  about  them 
as  their  opinions.  Set  the  will  right  first,  and 
men's  opinions  will  follow  suit,  as  soon  as 
they  have  opportunities  for  knowing  better; 
but  with  the  will  remaining  perverted,  not  the 
opportunities  for  knowing  of  an  eternity  will 
avail. 

One  of  the  best  promises  for  the  future  of 
our  race  is  the  fact  that  men  are  always 
touched,  and  the  longest  affected,  by  the  spec- 
tacle among  their  fellows  of  an  individual 
life  of  consistent  goodness,  itself  due  to  a 
will  attribute.  Influence  is  an  exclusively 
268 


PRACTICAL   APPLICATIONS 

human  word,  and,  in  this  world  of  changes 
by  death,  it  is  to  be  measured  not  alone  by  its 
extent,  but  by  its  duration.  Judged  thus,  the 
influence  of  a  simple-minded  but  loving 
mother  may  be  perpetuated  long  after  the 
eloquence  of  a  score  of  famous  orators  has 
died  away;  died  away  as  only  mind-produced 
words  can  utterly  die  away  into  empty  space. 
Passing  from  the  general  to  the  individual, 
no  subject  should  so  commend  itself  to  the 
serious  attention  of  all  educators  and  instruc- 
tors, as  those  physiological  facts  which  ex- 
plain how  the  mind  acts,  and  how  the  will 
acts.  Every  teacher  and  parent  ought  to  learn 
all  that  they  can  about  this  subject.  The 
thinking  brain  when  left  to  itself  is  the  seat  of 
the  play  of  the  Afferent,  responding  mechan- 
ically to  a  thousand  thousand  afferent  excita- 
tions pouring  in  upon  it,  in  number  as  count- 
less as  the  birds  of  the  air  which  come  down 
from  the  north,  south,  east  and  west,  on  a 
field  in  Gennesaret  to  catch  away  the  seed  of 
the  sower.  We  are  not  responsible  for  the 
269 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

thoughts  which  enter  our  minds.  No  man 
ever  was.  What  we  are  responsible  for  is 
the  thoughts  which  we  allow  to  stay  there, 
because  we  have  a  kingly  power  within  us 
which  can  command  this  mechanically  think- 
ing brain  to  do  its  thinking  according  to  its 
behest ;  just  as  the  brain  in  turn  can  command 
the  spinal  cord  to  stop  acting  reflexly  to  its 
afferent  excitations,  and  to  act  only  accord- 
ing to  the  brain's  behests.  The  Will,  by  its 
lawful,  physiological,  inhibitory  power,  can 
say  to  the  thinking  brain,  these  thoughts  are 
good  thoughts  and  valuable,  therefore  keep 
them;  those  other  thoughts  are  purposeless 
and  hence  unprofitable,  therefore  dismiss 
them  at  once ;  and  a  well-disciplined  mind  will 
obey. 

With  what  result?  Here  we  come  to  the 
highest  illustration  of  that  great  principle 
in  nervous  development.  Discipline,  for  it  is 
the  Will,  as  the  ranking  official  of  all  in  man, 
who  should  now  step  forward  to  take  the  com- 
mand. We  cannot  overestimate  the  priceless 
270 


PRACTICAL   APPLICATIONS 

value  of  such  direction  when  completely  ef- 
fective, for  the  life  of  the  individual  in  this 
world.  A  mind  always  broken  in  to  the  sway 
of  the  will,  and  therefore  thinking  according 
to  will,  and  not  according  to  reflex  sugges- 
tion, constitutes  a  purposive  life.  A  man  who 
habitually  thinks  according  to  purpose,  will 
then  speak  according  to  purpose;  and  who 
will  care  to  measure  strength  with  such  a 
man  ?  Such  a  man  or  woman  is  the  very  em- 
bodiment of  living  power.  But  the  important 
practical  truth  to  apply  here  is  that  no  power 
so  grows  in  us  by  exercise,  or  so  weakens  and 
atrophies  by  disuse,  as  the  will.  Teach  a 
child  self-restraint,  and  you  are  directly  de- 
veloping thereby  his  will  power.  Soon  he 
will  himself  learn  the  next  lesson  in  will 
development,  and  win  Carlyle's  great  equip- 
ment for  life,  the  ability  to  take  trouble.  But 
physiology  now  adds  that  the  will  then  alters 
the  brain  by  creating  new  places  for  the  mind 
to  work  with.  It  is  the  will  which  creates  the 
man. 

271 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

When  the  age  of  three  score  is  reached, 
men  can  give  the  best  opinions  about  life, 
because  most  of  its  illusions  have  vanished, 
and  well  can  they  then  comment  on  many  a 
fellow  traveler's  course,  though  they  may 
not  care  to  refer  to  their  own.  Not  a  few  of 
those  whom  they  have  known  started  out 
apparently  well  equipped,  so  far  as  mental 
gifts  and  opportunities  of  education  and  of 
social  position  could  enable  them  to  go  far 
and  ascend  high.  But  one  by  one  they  lagged 
and  suffered  themselves  to  be  outstripped 
by  others,  whom  perhaps  few  suspected  at 
the  start  would  reach  the  first  rank  before 
them,  because  they  appeared  so  much  infe- 
rior in  mental  powers  to  the  men  whom  ulti- 
mately they  wholly  distanced.  Will  direction 
explains  it  all.  What  is  the  finest  mental 
machine  in  this  life  without  will  power! 

In  a  former  age  men  worshipped  the  body. 

Homer 's  heroes,  with  the  partial  exception  of 

Ulysses,  were  worshipped  for  their  bodily 

strength  and  beauty.    The  same  is  still  true 

272 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

everywhere  among  savage  tribes.  But  we 
are  living  in  an  age  in  which  mental  gifts  are 
estimated  above  all  else.  The  great  poet,  the 
great  artist,  the  great  writer,  the  great  ora- 
tor, are  our  Goliaths,  while  there  is  no  end 
to  the  twaddle  about  genius. 

But  the  finest  mental  machine  without  the 
will  is  little  else  than  a  machine  worked  by 
the  Afferent.  But  we  are  not  here  to  be  affer- 
ent. It  is  a  responsibility  for  any  being  in 
the  universe  to  have  what  man  has — the  Will. 
That  majestic  endowment  constitutes  the 
high  privilege  granted  to  each  man  appar- 
ently to  test  how  much  the  man  will  make  of 
himself.  It  is  clothed  with  powers  which  will 
enable  him  to  obtain  the  greatest  of  all  pos- 
sessions —  self-possession.  Self-possession 
implies  the  capacity  for  self-restraint,  self- 
compulsion  and  self-direction ;  and  he  who  has 
these,  if  he  live  long  enough,  can  have  any 
other  possession  that  he  wants.  The  steady 
discipline  of  the  will  saves  the  mind  also  by 
obliging  it  not  only  to  lessen  the  number  of 
273 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

its  thoughts,  but  to  improve  their  quality. 
It  is  a  weak,  often  a  diseased  mind  which 
thinks  hurriedly.  Let  a  man  be  enfeebled  by 
a  fever,  or  by  any  other  cause  of  exhaustion, 
and  he  has  hard  work  to  keep  his  mental 
machine  from  turning  out  thoughts  which 
run  to  the  end  of  the  earth.  A  rapid  flow  of 
ideas,  indeed,  is  the  sign  often  of  impending 
ruin,  as  in  the  approach  of  maniacal  insanity, 
and  rarely  does  that  dreadful  calamity  occur 
except  after  long  antecedent,  vicious  mental 
habits,  in  which  the  mind  has  been  allowed  to 
roam  with  progressively  less  and  less  inhibi- 
tion by  the  will. 

To  a  less  but  ever  harmful  degree  men  are 
everywhere  exposed  to  the  depredations  of 
that  great  thief  of  life — Desultoriness — for 
desultoriness  of  thought  leads  to  desultori- 
ness of  purpose,  of  plan,  and  of  action,  be- 
cause each  of  these  are  soon  displaced  by 
some  other  thought  or  purpose,  till  the  man 
wakes  up  at  last  to  find  his  life  wasted  by  his 
ever  roving,  afferently  working  mind. 
274 


PRACTICAL   APPLICATIONS 

Mental  waste  from  too  little  will  direction 
is  the  greatest  waste  of  the  world.  Will  direc- 
tion calls  for  effort,  but  without  it  the  mind 
can  easily  saunter  among  attractive  scenes  of 
its  own  creation.  This  is  one  reason  why  our 
world  is  infested  with  so  many  dreamers, 
because  it  is  so  interesting  to  imagine  an  ideal 
society,  an  ideal  state,  or  an  ideal  church 
with  personally  owned  air  castles  included. 
All  these  are  examples  of  mental  processes 
which,  when  indulged  in  till  they  become  men- 
tal habits,  may  end  in  true  mental  diseases. 
During  the  usually  gradual  onset  of  that  fatal 
form  of  insanity  which  ends  in  general 
paralysis,  the  mind  of  the  patient  is  charac- 
teristically occupied  with  exalted  day  dreams. 
I  have  thus  recognized  paupers  in  almshouses 
as  affected  with  paresis,  not  only  by  the  phys- 
ical signs  in  their  eye  pupils,  etc.,  but  by 
eliciting  from  them  confidential  statements 
of  what  millionaires  they  were,  and  what 
great  things  they  were  going  to  do. 

It  is  therefore  one  of  the  healthiest  symp- 
275 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

toms  in  a  man  to  find  him  always  able  to 
face  facts.  This  the  mind  will  never  do  with- 
out the  command  of  the  will,  because  facing 
facts  has  to  be  a  deliberate,  often  a  disagree- 
able process,  requiring  much  thought ;  and  no 
mental  machine  can  think  long  on  any  sub- 
ject unless  it  has  learned  to  think  by  will. 
Deep  thought  is  but  another  term  for  pro- 
longed thought. 

Without  at  first  proposing  anything  of  the 
sort,  the  physiologist  now  begins  to  find  him- 
self appearing  in  public  in  the  conventional 
garb  of  an  old  sage.  From  the  time  of  the 
prince  who,  centuries  before  Moses  was  born, 
wrote  a  book  which  has  been  found  in  an 
Egyptian  tomb,  in  which  he  counsels  his 
grandson  how  he  could  profit,  as  he  himself 
had,  by  studying  the  books  of  the  ancients, 
through  a  long  line  of  Hebrew,  Sanscrit,  Per- 
sian, Chinese,  Greek  and  Eoman  worthies, 
mankind  has  been  abundantly  lectured  about 
wisdom.  Some  people  find  these  sages  rather 
tiresome,  because  their  talk  is  so  monoto- 
276 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

nously  alike,  while  its  substance  nearly  every 
one  has  known  before.  Therefore  the  physi- 
ologist had  better  not  venture  to  add  himself 
to  the  number,  unless  he  can  show  cause  by 
having  something  new  to  say.  All  that  he 
can  claim  is  that  his  calling  has  made  clear 
certain  facts  and  principles  entering  into  the 
question  which  his  predecessors  might  have 
suspected,  but  without  being  as  well  informed 
about  the  grounds  for  them  as  he  now  is. 
Thus  as  to  wisdom.  For  practical  purposes 
it  might  be  defined  as  a  correct  appreciation 
of  the  relative  importance  of  things,  and  act- 
ing accordingly.  The  physiologist  divides 
this  definition  into  two  very  distinct  halves, 
according  to  his  recognition  of  the  wide  dif- 
ference between  the  mind  and  the  will.  The 
first  half,  the  appreciation  of  the  relative 
importance  of  things,  is  done  exclusively  by 
the  mind;  and  it  does  it  so  well  and  easily 
that  any  one  can  try  his  hand  at  it.  Every- 
body is  wise — by  fits.  The  greatest  fool  of 
one's  acquaintance  has  his  sage  moments, 
277 


BRAIN     AND     PERSONALITY 

and,  moreover,  can  deliver  correct  judgments 
about  what  others  ought  to  do.  But  when  it 
comes  to  acting  accordingly,  that  falls  to  the 
will  alone ;  and  to  keep  on  steadily  doing  what 
the  mind  recognizes  as  the  wise  thing,  such  a 
store  of  will  power  is  needed  that  but  few  are 
found  who  have  it. 

The  ancient  sages  long  bewailed  this  failure 
of  the  will  to  do  the  behest  of  the  wise  mind ; 
but  though  they  clearly  recognized  the  fact, 
they  did  not  know  the  physiological  reason 
for  it,  which  we  are  yet  to  allude  to  in  our 
final  chapter. 

As  we  have  stated  in  Chapter  I,  none 
of  them  knew  what  a  nervous  system  was, 
nor  what  the  brain  was  for.  They  did  not 
know,  therefore,  any  of  the  following  facts 
which  have  so  much  bearing  upon  every  spec- 
ulation about  man.  First,  that  the  conscious 
personality  has  a  material  organ  to  think 
with,  which  exists  in  two  symmetrical  halves. 
It  is  only  one  half  of  this  organ,  however, 
which  can  be  used  for  speech,  or  for  recog- 
278 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

nizing  or  knowing  anything  which  is  either 
seen  or  heard  or  touched,  in  the  sense  of  the 
touch  which  is  educated.  All  acquired  hu- 
man endowments,  therefore,  are  acquired  by 
a  modification  of  the  material  comprising  the 
speaking  half  of  the  brain.  This  speaking 
half  of  the  brain  did  not  originally  have  a 
single  one  of  these  great  functions,  not  a 
single  place  in  it  for  them,  any  more  than  its 
fellow  hemisphere  has  to  the  end  of  life. 
They  are  all  stamped,  as  it  were,  each  in  its 
respective  place  in  the  speaking  hemisphere, 
by  a  single  creative  agency.  Had  any  one  of 
the  old  wise  men  or  philosophers  been  told 
this,  how  eagerly  would  he  have  asked  who 
or  what  that  creative  agency  was !  We  can 
well  imagine  that  when  told  that  it  was  alone 
the  purposive  human  will  which  first  endowed 
that  hemisphere  with  the  great  faculty  of 
speech,  and  then  with  all  the  rest  of  these 
great  powers,  he  would  have  exclaimed:  **If 
so,  the  Will  is  the  greatest  fact  in  man  I ' ' 
The  physiologist  has  something  new  to  say 
279 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

even  on  the  oldest  subjects  of  the  moralist. 
Who,  like  himself,  for  example,  can  speak 
with  such  emphasis  on  the  great  subject  of 
Habit?  Long  ago  sages  said  that  our  habits 
make  us.  But  they  said  so  after  their  obser- 
vation of  external  life.  The  physiologist, 
using  the  same  words,  means  that  our  habits 
make  our  brains  inside  of  us,  so  that  we  think, 
talk  and  act  accordingly,  and  always  accord- 
ingly, until  the  Will  steps  in  and  takes  the 
fashioning  of  the  human  brain  in  hand. 

But  has  the  Will  here  entirely  displaced 
Habit?  Alas!  no.  The  Will  is  very  partial 
in  its  work  on  the  brain.  As  it  began  by  dis- 
carding one  of  the  two  brains  altogether,  so 
by  analogous  neglect  it  also  leaves  every  man 
with  a  great  part  of  his  mental  apparatus 
only  a  purposeless,  mechanically  thinking 
thing,  which  is  the  mere  creature  of  its  habits. 
Then  comes  to  the  man  an  excellent  teacher. 
Experience,  only,  as  Carlyle  says  of  him,  **a 
teacher  good  and  true,  but  he  demands  such 
dreadful  high  wages!"  From  Experience 
280 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

the  man  learns  in  time  that  many  of  his  men- 
tal habits  are  very  injurious,  and  hamper  him 
like  so  many  fetters.  What  can  he  do  about 
it?  It  is  the  physiologist  who  can  now  tell 
him.  Do  not  expect  much  from  a  New  Year 
Day's  resolutions.  Your  will  can  make  a  new 
man  of  you,  but  only  after  its  fashion  when 
making  anything  new  in  the  brain — ^by  reiter- 
ating this  same  resolution  stimulus  every  sin- 
gle day  after  New  Year's  for  the  whole  year 
at  least,  just  as  you  learn  by  it  a  new  lan- 
guage. Brain  cells  and  brain  fibers  cannot 
learn  better  ways  from  preachers,  only  your 
own  untiring  Will  can  do  anything  with  them. 
One  other  thing  the  Will  can  do  which  is 
of  welcome  import.  To  the  young,  as  has 
been  said.  Nature  does  nothing  but  give ;  from 
the  old  she  does  nothing  but  take  away.  If 
men  did  not  become  used  to  the  progressive 
losses  of  old  age  by  sheer  compulsion,  the 
so-called  natural  term  of  life  would  be  for 
little  else  than  sorrow.  With  old  age  every- 
thing physical  about  us  becomes  progress- 
281 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

ively  less  usable  and  enjoyable,  as  if  it  were 
decaying  by  disease.  But  the  Will  says  to 
Age :  ' '  You  must  spare  whatever  brain  there 
be  where  I  remain  in  force.  Do  what  you  like 
with  bone,  muscle,  or  anything  else  about 
your  victims,  and  you  may  likewise  waste  the 
brains  of  ordinary  people,  till  they  become 
more  childish  than  children,  but  the  brain 
where  I  work  shall  always  remain  young!" 

This  is  all  due  to  the  remarkable  physio- 
logical power  of  what  is  called  ' '  interest ' '  to 
resist  either  bodily  exhaustion  or  decay.  If 
a  man  expended  the  same  amount  of  muscu- 
lar exertion  sawing  wood  which  he  does  climb- 
ing rocks  or  wading  streams  after  trout,  he 
would  faint  dead  away.  But  interest  is  the 
soul  of  the  Will,  and  the  undjdng  ambition  of 
many  a  statesman  has  kept  his  brain  as  strong 
after  three  score  and  ten  as  it  ever  was  be- 
fore. The  mind  of  Gladstone  when  he  was 
over  eighty  was  not  like  his  body  at  that  age, 
but  remained  still  the  same  mind  in  all  its 
powers  which  it  was  at  sixty.  This  was  not 
282 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

simply  because  Gladstone  had  an  exceptional 
mind,  for  if  that  were  all,  his  mind  would  have 
been  relatively  older  at  eighty  and  after  than 
it  was  at  sixty,  which  it  never  was,  but  con- 
tinued to  the  end  more  than  twenty  years 
younger  than  the  rest  of  his  frame. 

The  importance  of  demonstrating  this  prin- 
ciple will  excuse  our  delaying  a  moment  in 
accounting  for  those  interesting  physiological 
objects,  old  misers.  A  miser  is  sustained 
throughout  life  by  a  special  development  of 
that  incapacity  for  satisfaction  which  is  one 
of  the  characteristics  of  that  creature,  Man. 
Even  man 's  body  shares  in  this  insatiability, 
for  whereas  the  ass  is  contented  with  the  same 
diet  at  his  master's  crib  all  his  days,  it  would 
take  more  knowledge  than  most  people  have 
to  state  correctly  where  each  article  on  a 
workingman's  table  comes  from,  because  ev- 
ery region  and  every  climate  of  the  globe 
generally  contributes  something  to  that  din- 
ner. But  a  Power  working  on  that  will  ele- 
ment, which  prevents  man  from  knowing 
283 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

what  is  enough,  calls  the  miser  to  a  lifelong 
mortification  of  the  flesh;  to  an  indifference 
to  the  scorn  of  his  fellows  at  his  conduct  or 
at  his  raiment ;  and  to  the  claims  not  only  of 
his  kindred,  but  even  of  his  own  body;  for 
rich  misers  have  been  known  so  to  hate  their 
own  lives,  for  the  sake  of  their  master,  as  to 
die  of  starvation;  and  all  because  that  mas- 
ter's voice  ever  sounds  in  the  miser's  ear — 
to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given  and  he  shall 
have  more  abundantly.  In  other  words,  the 
miser's  will  is  unceasingly  stimulated  by  one 
of  the  most  living  and  powerful  of  human 
motives,  the  desire  to  have.  Wall  Street  is 
no  place  for  dotards  or  simpletons,  and  that 
money  market  has  known  more  than  one  octo- 
genarian who  was  as  well  able  to  acquire 
from  others  when  he  was  past  eighty  as  he 
was  half  a  century  before.  There  is  a  bodily 
window  through  which  the  light  streams  as 
long  as  the  brain  is  yet  young,  as  is  exempli- 
fied in  a  rich  miser  of  my  acquaintance :  while 
the  rest  of  him  betrays  that  he  is  close  upon 
284 


PRACTICAL    APPLICATIONS 

ninety,  the  quick,  searching  glance  of  his  eye 
reveals  that  every  faculty  of  his  mind  is  yet 
fully  at  the  disposal  of  his  will.  On  the  other 
hand,  let  a  man  retire  from  business  in  his 
prime,  to  lead  thereafter  a  motiveless  life, 
and  age  will  change  his  brain  as  fast  as  it 
changes  the  color  of  his  hair.  No  lesson  for 
advancing  years  does  physiology  emphasize 
more  strongly  than  that  a  man  should  never 
lose  that  great  motive  power  of  the  will — 
interest. 


285 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF    SLEEP 

No  consideration  of  the  physical  relations  of 
the  brain  to  the  mind  would  be  complete  Trith- 
out  including  the  separation  of  the  one  from 
the  other  which  occurs  in  sleep.  Regarded 
simply  as  a  phenomenon,  sleep  has  been  well 
termed  the  great  mystery  of  life.  "We  should 
not  allow  the  term  mystery,  however,  to  be- 
come, as  is  done  by  some  persons,  a  signal 
for  cessation  of  all  further  discussion.  From 
its  own  nature  a  true  mystery,  instead  of 
ending  discussion  calls  for  more  of  it,  because 
a  mystery  is  always  something  about  which 
we  know  a  good  deal  or  else  it  would  be  no 
mystery.  If  we  know  nothing  about  a  sub- 
ject it  is  not  a  mystery  to  us,  whatever  else 
it  may  be.  Thus  I  have  heard  a  fourth  dimen- 
sion of  space  spoken  of,  but  as  I  know  nothing 
of  such  a  dimension,  and  have  not  found  any 
286 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

one  who  does,  it  can  be  no  mystery  to  me. 
What  constitutes  a  mystery  is  the  unknown 
which  is  certainly  connected  with  the  known. 
A  mystery,  therefore,  is  unfinished  knowledge 
rather  than  complete  ignorance.  Whether 
we  can  know  the  rest  or  not  makes  no  differ- 
ence. It  then  would  remain  only  an  unsolved 
mystery,  but  in  no  sense  the  less  a  mystery, 
when  we  are  convinced  from  what  we  know 
about  it  that  there  is  more  still  to  know. 

The  history  of  science  is  a  record  of  many 
a  long-standing  mystery  finally  solved.  Mean- 
time the  process  which  science  follows  in 
dealing  with  mysteries  is  always  the  same. 
First,  begin  by  finding  out  all  you  know  on 
the  subject.  Do  this  as  thoroughly  as  possi- 
ble. Then  be  sure  that  you  do  not  pass  to 
the  consideration  of  the  unknown,  except 
along  lines  definitely  connected  with  that 
which  is  certainly  known.  In  all  essentials 
this  process  corresponds  to  that  of  the  as- 
tronomer who  is  trying  to  find  out  his  dis- 
tance from  a  heavenly  body.  He  cannot 
287 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

leave  this  earth,  and  therefore  he  begins  with 
geometry,  and  with  infinite  patience  meas- 
ures his  base  line.  Not  until  he  is  sure 
of  that  does  he  begin  as  carefully  to  measure 
the  angles  of  the  lines  which  leave  this  earth 
from  either  end  of  his  base  line  on  their  way 
to  the  object  in  the  sky. 

Therefore  we  begin  our  investigation  of  the 
mystery  of  sleep,  by  selecting  for  our  base 
line  its  most  fundamental  fact,  as  it  appears 
in  a  question  often  put  by  a  child — where  do 
we  go  to  when  we  go  to  sleep  ?  This  is  a  very 
natural  question  for  a  child,  because  it  easily 
recognizes  that  "  we  *'  are  gone  then.  Its 
understanding  has  already  grasped  the  cen- 
tral fact  about  sleep — absence. 

That  being  so,  we  must  now  take  our  time 
in  considering  this  first  fact,  our  base  line  for 
subsequent  proceedings.  In  the  first  place, 
something  must  be  present,  in  order  that  the 
other  thing  be  absent  from  it;  and  the  pres- 
ent here  is  the  living  body,  not  only  complete 
in  all  its  parts,  but  also  in  its  living  attributes 
288 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

and  functions.  Not  one  of  its  component 
cells  is  changed  or  gone.  The  blood  circu- 
lates the  same,  the  secretions  flow  the  same, 
the  lungs  go  on  exchanging  carbonic  acid  for 
oxygen,  and  all  the  processes  of  nutrition 
are  as  active  as  ever. 

But  the  completeness  of  that  which  is  pres- 
ent only  accentuates  the  disappearance  of 
that  which  is  absent.  Whatever  other  ques- 
tions may  be  raised,  the  primary  and  certain 
truth  is  that  in  natural  sleep,  the  conscious 
personality  in  us  takes  its  departure  from 
the  body  without  leaving  a  trace  behind.  It 
may  return  gradually  and  partially  as  in 
dreams,  but  that  is  then  not  sleep.  In  true, 
healthy,  sound  sleep  the  body  is  as  devoid  as 
a  bronze  or  stone  statue  of  either  conscious- 
ness or  mind.  That  it  is  still  a  warm,  living 
body  does  not  alter  the  case,  because  while  a 
living  body  can  be  awakened  and  a  statue 
cannot,  awakening  is  the  opposite  of  sleep, 
and  hence  throws  no  light  whatever  on  what 
sleep  itself  is. 

289 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

The  marvel  of  sleep  is  lost  upon  us  owing 
to  the  unfortunate  peculiarity  that  our  ability 
to  wonder  is  soon  abolished  by  mere  repeti- 
tion. Because  the  recurrence  of  sleep  is  as 
certain  and  regular  as  sunset  itself,  it  does 
not  occur  to  us  to  wonder  at  it,  or  to  ask  what 
it  all  means.  Really  to  appreciate  what  a 
strange  thing  sleep  is  in  a  race  of  intelligent 
beings,  we  may  have  recourse  to  our  imagi- 
nation, and  picture  another  world  whose  in- 
habitants are  mentally  just  like  ourselves,  but 
whose  ordinary  conscious  life  is  continuous, 
and  sleep  therefore  wholly  unknown  to  them. 
Now  should  a  single  one  of  their  fellows  hap- 
pen to  fall  asleep  in  our  fashion,  he  would 
certainly  fill  them  all  with  amazement,  if  not 
with  terror.  To  their  minds,  an  individual 
who  could  virtually  go  out  of  existence  for 
some  hours,  and  then  return  just  as  if  noth- 
ing had  happened,  would  be  about  as  uncanny 
and  alarming  an  object  as  the  apparition  of 
an  unmistakable  ghost  would  be  to  us. 

But  the  greatest  perturbation  of  all  which 
290 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

this  sleeper  would  occasion  would  be  among 
their  philosophers,  because  he  would  consti- 
tute a  phenomenon  which  contradicted  their 
whole  science  of  the  Real.  With  less  diffi- 
culty than  our  own  philosophers,  who  always 
feel  uneasy  when  sleep  is  mentioned,  their 
philosophers  had  long  demonstrated  that  the 
one  certainty  of  certainties  among  them  was 
their  own  conscious  selves,  that  Ego  which  is 
always  there.  As  with  us,  every  other  exist- 
ence is  only  relative  to  this  first  certainty, 
which  is  based  upon  personal  consciousness. 
But  this  new  sleeper  among  them  would  be 
a  specimen  of  a  being  who  can  be  alternately 
vividly  conscious  at  one  time,  and  utterly  non- 
conscious  at  another,  and  whose  Ego,  there- 
fore, could  both  be  and  not  be  by  turns ! 

To  return  now  to  our  own  earth,  and  to  our 
body  of  philosophers,  we  may  first  allude 
to  the  theme  which  has  long  chiefly  occupied 
their  attention,  namely.  Ontology,  or  the 
Science  of  Being.  In  their  discussions  on  the 
nature  of  Being  two  great  terms  are  con- 
291 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

tinually  employed ;  namely,  Subject,  to  denote 
that  which  thinks,  and  Object,  or  that  which 
is  thought  about.  The  Subject  also  feels 
and  perceives,  while  the  Object  is  that  which 
is  the  occasion  of  feeling  and  of  perceiv- 
ing by  the  Subject.  The  longest  debate 
has  been  on  the  relations  of  these  two  ele- 
ments of  our  being  to  each  other.  One 
school  of  philosophers  maintains  that  they 
are  absolutely  distinct,  the  Subject  being  the 
central  Ego,  and  the  Object  being  essentially 
the  external  Non-Ego.  The  other  school 
maintains  that  the  two  are  really  identical, 
Object  being  but  a  phase  of  Subject. 

Meantime  the  appeal  on  both  sides  is  ex- 
clusively to  facts  of  consciousness.  The  first 
school  relies  upon  the  immediate  perception 
by  the  Subject  that  the  Object,  for  example, 
a  stone,  is  no  part  of  it,  never  was  and  never 
can  be.  The  other  school,  beginning  with  the 
illustrations  of  sound  and  of  pain  as  things 
which  have  no  objective,  but  only  subjective, 
existence,  then  goes  on  to  demonstrate  that 
292 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

everything  exists  only  as  a  state  of  conscious- 
ness. Apart  from  a  conscious  mind,  nothing 
has  any  real  existence  in  or  of  itself.  This 
was  Bishop  Berkeley's  celebrated  doctrine. 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that  Democritus 
of  Abdera,  circa  430  b.c,  was  the  doctrinal 
ancestor  of  Berkeley.  His  teaching  contains 
the  germ  of  all  subsequent  speculations  of  the 
kind,  enunciated  in  his  famous  saying: 
'*  Man  lives  plunged  in  a  world  of  illusion 
and  of  deceptive  forms  which  the  vulgar  take 
for  reality.  To  tell  the  truth,  we  do  not  know 
anything."  The  late  Professor  Clifford 
maintained  a  theory  about  mind  and  its  re- 
lations to  matter,  which,  to  use  his  own  words, 
**  Is  not  merely  a  speculation,  but  is  a  result 
to  which  all  the  greater  minds  which  have 
studied  this  question  in  the  right  way 
(namely,  in  Clifford's  way)  have  gradually 
been  approximating  for  a  long  time."  This 
theory  is  that  mental  phenomena  and  physi- 
cal phenomena,  although  apparently  diverse, 
are  really  identical.  This  view,  though  not 
293 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

in  all  its  aspects  the  same,  yet  approximates 
to  the  doctrine  of  Hegel,  that  there  can  be  no 
existence  possible  of  matter  or  of  motion,  ex- 
cept as  standing  in  relation  to  mind. 

All  we  can  say  to  this  is  that  by  the  time 
a  man  who,  while  looking  at  that  interesting 
body,  the  moon,  comes  through  philosophiz- 
ing to  believe  that  it  is  a  special  phase  of  him- 
self, because  being  an  object  it  exists  only  in 
his  consciousness,  he  must  then  be  intellectu- 
ally drunk ! 

It  is  related  of  a  certain  German  thinker 
that  his  cogitations  led  him  into  such  a  sea 
of  doubts,  that  he  began  to  doubt  his  own  ex- 
istence. At  last  his  feet  touched  bottom  on 
one  imquestionable  fact,  viz. :  That  he  could 
not  doubt  that  he  doubted!  But,  unfortu- 
nately for  this  reassurance,  it  also  would  go 
when  he  lay  his  head  upon  his  pillow  at 
night,  for  in  his  sleep  he  would  not  know  that 
he  had  ever  doubted.  Doubting  is  a  fact  of 
consciousness.  But  so  is  every  other  fact 
which  metaphysicians  go  by.  They  all  con- 
294 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

sist  of  mental  processes  in  the  waking  state. 
But  in  sleep  all  mental  processes,  with  every- 
thing pertaining  to  them,  apparently  cease, 
and  so  completely  that  all  contrasts  and  dis- 
tinctions belonging  to  conscious  life  equally 
disappear.  A  philosopher  and  a  simpleton, 
a  wise  man  and  a  fool,  and  likewise  an  inno- 
cent child  and  a  murderer,  a  saint  and  a 
criminal,  are  all  alike  when  they  are  all  fast 
asleep. 

Sleep,  therefore,  is  a  something  which 
abolishes  both  the  Subject  and  the  Object  of 
the  metaphysician  before  his  very  eyes ;  and 
along  with  them  every  other  thing  that  he  has 
talked  about,  whether  principles  of  thought 
or  principles  of  ethics. 

This '  undoubted  accompaniment  of  sleep, 
then,  raises  the  question  whether  our  base 
line  itself  be  correct  or  not.  Does  sleep  tes- 
tify to  the  absence  of  the  conscious  person- 
ality from  the  body,  or  rather  to  what  is 
really  quite  different  from  absence,  namely, 
to  extinction  of  the  personality?  Instead  of 
295 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

the  child 's  question,  Wliere  do  we  go  when  we 
go  to  sleep?  the  other  question,  also  some- 
times asked  bv  a  child,  may  be  nearer  the 
mark,  Wliere  does  the  fire  go  when  it  goes 
out?  We  may  then  liken  our  conscious  life 
to  the  light  of  a  candle  which  is  periodically 
extinguished  to  prevent  the  candle,  which  is 
the  analogue  of  the  body,  from  being  burned 
up  too  fast.  Every  time  this  candle  is  lit,  it 
gives  off  its  light  at  the  expense  of  the  body, 
so  that  in  time  the  candle  itself  is  used  up; 
and  after  a  few  fitful  flashes  in  its  socket,  it 
ends  in  final  darkness. 

Starting,  therefore,  with  Extinction  as  our 
base,  we  will  follow  our  lines  of  inference 
therefrom  to  note  whether  they  will  converge 
to  some  definite  conclusion.  At  one  end  of 
our  base  line  we  have  the  fact,  which  is  doubt- 
less true,  that  sleep  is  due  to  a  physical  bodily 
necessity  or  condition.  Moreover  we  have 
more  than  one  example  of  purely  physical 
conditions  inducing  the  chief  element  in  sleep, 
namely,  unconsciousness,  such  as  in  apoplexy, 
296 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

or  from  a  blow  on  the  head,  or  from  brain 
poisoning,  as  by  chloroform;  and  though 
these  states  differ  in  many  particulars  from 
natural  sleep,  yet  they  suffice  to  show  that  the 
link  between  consciousness  and  the  brain  is  a 
physical  one,  or  else  physical  agents  would 
not  sever  it.  The  inference,  therefore,  seems 
probable  that  as  physical  conditions  of  the 
brain  extinguish  consciousness,  so  physical 
conditions  there  create  it. 

But  unfortunately  this  line  of  inference 
based  upon  extinction  cannot  be  made  to  pass 
in  the  neighborhood  of  demonstrated  facts. 
To  begin  with,  it  is  not  the  whole  body,  but 
only  a  part  of  the  body,  namely,  the  nervous 
system,  which  is  connected  with  the  conscious 
personality,  and  not  the  whole  nervous  sys- 
tem but  only  the  brain,  and  in  turn  not  the 
whole  brain  but  only  the  one  of  the  two  hemi- 
spheres in  which  speech  is  located,  which 
when  awake  either  subjectively  thinks  or  rec- 
ognizes objects.  We  have  gone  all  over  this 
subject  before,  and  need  not  waste  any  mor^ 
297 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

words  upon  it.  The  brain  itself  neither 
makes  a  word  nor  forms  an  idea.  All  words 
and  all  knowledge  are  put  in  the  brain,  and 
arranged  there  for  use,  like  so  many  books 
on  their  brain  shelves  by  the  brain's  libra- 
rian. Where  he  goes  to,  when  he  locks  this 
library  up  and  leaves  for  the  night,  we  do 
not  know ;  but  one  thing  is  certain :  that  not 
one  of  its  books  made  itself  or  put  itself 
where  it  properly  is. 

But  the  inferences  drawn  at  the  other  end 
of  this  base  line  are  worse  yet  for  going  all 
astray.  Extinction  is  extinction;  therefore, 
after  the  shortest  nap  our  whole  conscious 
selves  have  to  be  made  all  anew!  The  com- 
parison to  a  re-lit  candle  is  altogether  too 
simple  to  fit  the  case,  for  our  being  is  infi- 
nitely more  than  a  flame.  The  surest  reali- 
ties of  being  cannot  actively  exist,  then  be  an- 
nihilated, and  then  come  into  active  existence 
again,  like  passing  flashes  of  light.  How 
much  of  our  conscious  life  consists  in  memo- 
ries and  the  use  of  memories !  Every  word 
298 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

we  hear,  read  or  utter,  exists  as  memorized 
symbols  in  the  cells  of  our  speech  centers, 
and  it  took  a  long  time  to  put  them  there. 
A  night's  sleep  certainly  does  not  and  cannot 
obliterate  them,  nor  wipe  out  anything  else 
the  brain  has  acquired.  We  have  gained  in 
our  years  settled  convictions,  strong  motives 
and  living  sentiments,  all  too  deeply  seated 
to  come  by  day  and  go  by  night,  or  ever  ap- 
proach extinction  while  we  live.  It  is  these 
abiding  elements  in  our  conscious  being 
which  make  us  true  persons.  To  admit  that 
all  of  them  can  be  and  not  be  between 
waking  and  sleeping  would  be  the  end  of  all 
reality.  If  we  are  certain  of  anything,  it  is 
that  we  are.  The  old  saying — cogito,  ergo 
sum,  I  think,  therefore  I  am — is  not  to  be 
disproved  by  brief  lapses  into  unthinking 
sleep. 

But  this  theory  runs  counter  also  to  one  of 

the  most  striking  facts  about  personality, 

namely.   Continuity.     Change  is  the  great 

word  descriptive  of  this  strange  life  of  ours. 

299 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

As  old  age  approaches,  memory  can  bring 
back  picture  after  picture  of  our  former 
selves,  in  early  childhood,  in  youth  and  in 
each  year  thereafter,  with  changes  upon 
changes  in  everything — except  in  one  thing. 
Through  them  all,  whether  taking  place  in  us 
or  about  us,  we  were  never  anybody  else.  It 
was  I  who  was  a  child,  and  it  is  the  same  I 
who  is  now.  That  I  has  never  been  other 
than  what  it  is,  and  certainly  never  yet  ex- 
tinct. Hence  the  extinction  theory  of  sleep 
leads  us  to  absurdity  as  its  conclusion ;  or,  in 
other  words,  to  a  mental  Nowhere. 

Let  us,  therefore,  in  our  quest  now  turn  and 
ask  what  physiology  has  to  say  on  the  sub- 
ject. That  is  eminently  proper,  because  in 
all  matters  connected  with  bodily  life,  it  is 
the  province  of  physiology  to  occupy  itself 
with  the  question.  What  for?  All  other  de- 
tails about  structure  or  place  are  considered 
by  the  physiologist  as  simply  contributing  to 
solving  his  question,  Wliat  is  the  purpose 
achieved?  Sleep  is  a  great  factor  in  human 
300 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

life,  about  one-third  of  its  allotted  duration 
being  spent  in  sleep ;  but  what  is  sleep  for! 

Many  persons  may  think  that  they  can  an- 
swer this  question  off-hand,  without  any  help 
from  the  physiologist.  After  a  hard  day's 
work,  farmer  and  mechanic  know  that  their 
fatigued  muscles  need  rest.  Another  who 
has  been  working  his  brain  for  hours  finds 
that  his  thoughts  are  growing  dull  and  sleepy. 
With  another  an  exciting  day  ends  in  a  sense 
of  weariness  in  all  his  nerves,  those  of  the  eye 
and  of  the  ear  especially.  Therefore  it  is 
plain  that  muscles  cannot  be  worked  forever, 
nor  brain  nor  nerves  be  exercised  unceas- 
ingly ;  and  hence  that  is  what  the  rest  of  sleep 
is  for. 

But  such  an  answer  is  none  the  less  a 
mistake  because  part  of  it  is  true.  In  fact, 
the  demonstration  of  what  the  particular 
mistake  in  this  answer  is  will  take  us  a  long 
way  toward  recognizing  what  in  truth  is  the 
real  significance  of  sleep. 

First,  as  to  the  muscles.  Sleep  is  needed 
301 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

by  muscles  not  because  they  are  muscles  do- 
ing work.  Muscular  work,  as  such,  does  not 
tire  muscles,  though  they  have  to  work  unin- 
terruptedly not  for  hours  only,  but  for  years. 
Muscular  work  consists  in  pulling  at  some- 
thing, and  then  relaxing  so  as  to  pull  again. 
For  this  purpose  all  muscles  which  are  at- 
tached to  bones  are  composed  of  lines  of 
muscle  cells,  which  contract  in  the  direction 
of  their  attachments,  and  by  shortening  the 
muscle  produce  the  pull.  All  such  muscles 
under  the  microscope  have  just  the  same  ap- 
pearance, are  constructed  alike,  and  always 
perform  just  the  same  kind  of  work.  Now 
the  diaphragm  is  a  great  muscle,  and  is  both 
constructed  and  does  its  work  just  as  any 
muscle  in  arm  or  leg  does  its  work.  Indeed, 
it  has  to  perform  more  muscular  work  than 
any  muscle  in  the  limbs  ever  does  or  could 
do.  But  it  would  be  disastrous  if  ever  it  got 
so  tired  by  its  work  that  it  called  for  rest. 
It  is  the  same  in  the  powerful  array  of  the 
other  chest  and  abdominal  muscles  which 
302 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

carry  on  our  respiration,  for  the  combined 
muscular  work  spent  in  breathing  has  been 
estimated  as  equal  to  raising  five  hundred 
pounds  an  inch  with  each  deep  inspiration. 
So  great  is  the  work  performed  by  these  mus- 
cles, that  most  of  our  power-making  food  is 
consumed  in  their  unceasing  exercise,  in 
all  which,  fortunately,  none  of  them  ever  need 
sleep.  It  has  been  erroneously  supposed 
that  these  muscles  get  all  the  rest  in  breath- 
ing which  they  need,  because  they  rhythmi- 
cally rest  between  inspiration  and  expira- 
tion. But  let  any  one  try  to  move  his  arms 
up  and  down  sawing  wood,  twenty-four  times 
a  minute,  which  is  the  pace  of  ordinary 
breathing,  while  standing,  and  he  will  find 
that  his  pauses  between  in  that  rhyth- 
mical process  did  not  amount  to  any  rest  at 
all. 

The  conclusion  from  these  physiological 
facts  is  important,  namely,  that  it  is  some- 
thing else  beside  their  work,  and  essentially 
different  from  it,  which  tires  and  exhausts 
303 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY     ' 

muscles  to  the  degree  sometimes  of  destroy- 
ing them. 

Still  more  significant  are  the  facts  about 
nerve  cells  and  the  expenditure  of  their 
energy,  which  is  equivalent  in  its  way  to  the 
expenditure  of  power  by  muscles  in  their 
work.  In  contrast  with  the  action  of  muscles 
which  is  visible  and  uniform,  the  action  of 
nerve  cells  and  of  their  prolongations  in 
nerve  fibers  is  both  invisible  and  extraordi- 
narily multiform. 

We  can  judge  what  their  action  is  only  by 
cutting  the  nerve  fiber  or  excising  the  cell, 
or  by  stimulating  these  with  various  irri- 
tants. But  the  result  of  such  experiments 
conveys  the  impression  of  power,  or  of  the 
transfer  of  energy  in  nervous  tissue  much 
more  than  any  manifestations  of  the  kind  in 
muscular  tissue.  Take  a  powerful  muscle  and 
simply  sever  its  motor  nerve,  and  the  muscle 
hangs  flaccid  and  paralyzed.  All  that  strong 
work  in  the  muscle  was  elicited  by  a  current 
of  energy  coming  down  that  nerve.  So  the 
304 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

whole  powerful  mechanism  of  the  muscles 
of  respiration  would  instantly  and  forever 
cease  to  work  if  a  small  nail  were  driven  into 
the  respiratory  center  in  the  medulla  oblon- 
gata. But  the  medulla  has  to  regulate  the 
beating  heart  as  well,  and  it  sends  its  nerves 
to  follow  every  secondary  artery,  down  to  the 
smallest,  to  regulate  them  all  with  a  grip 
which  they  must  ever  obey.  These  are  ex- 
amples of  only  a  part  of  the  work  which  the 
power  centers  in  the  medulla  are  constantly 
performing  without  cessation  throughout  life, 
A  moment's  sleep  by  them  would  mean  the 
sleep  of  death.  Hence  neither  nerve  cells  nor 
nerve  fibers,  as  such,  need  rest  in  their 
work;  and  as  with  muscles,  it  must  be  some- 
thing other  than  their  work  which  can  fatigue 
them. 

No  one  can  fail,  therefore,  to  be  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  revelation  of  what  the  signifi- 
cance of  sleep  is,  when  it  clearly  appears  that 
it  is  only  the  play  upon  it  of  the  conscious- 
ness, and  especially  the  highest  function  of 
305 


BRAIN    AND   PERSONALITY 

consciousness,  the  Will,  that  fatigues  or  ex- 
hausts with  weariness  any  part  of  the  living 
body.  The  muscles  of  the  thumb  and  fore- 
finger are  small  indeed,  either  in  size  or  in 
power,  compared  with  the  diaphragm ;  but,  as 
we  have  mentioned,  often  both  the  nerves  of 
these  muscles  and  the  muscles  themselves  are 
wholly  ruined  in  writer's  palsy  by  too  con- 
tinuous work  done  by  them  at  the  command 
of  the  will.  As  soon  as  the  will  orders  the 
muscles  of  the  arms  and  legs  to  work  under 
its  direction,  that  work  becomes  labor.  Ere 
long  they  cry  for  rest  and  must  have  it  or 
fatal  exhaustion  will  follow. 

Therefore  it  is  not  natural  work,  whether 
nervous  or  muscular,  but  only  conscious  work 
which  wears.  In  proportion  to  the  continu- 
ousness  with  which  the  conscious  will  enters 
into  any  bodily  action  is  the  resultant  fatigue. 
"What  does  this  remarkable  fact  mean?  Be- 
cause instead  of  missing  the  presence  of  this 
law  of  being  in  the  operations  of  the  brain 
itself,  when  thoughts  are  passing  through  it, 
306 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

we  then  meet  with  some  of  its  most  striking 
illnstrations.  Allow  the  brain  to  think  as  it 
pleases,  and  it  is  much  pleased  to  do  so.  It 
enjoys  all  the  afferent  impressions  of  the 
senses  and  thinks  fast  and  easily.  It  roves 
from  thought  to  thought,  and  from  fancy  to 
fancy,  as  lightly  as  the  butterfly  passes  from 
flower  to  flower.  Mental  buttcfrfljdng,  in  fact, 
is  a  good  descriptive  term  of  the  thinking  of 
many  men  and  women.  But  the  moment  the 
will  calls  the  mind  from  its  pasturing,  and, 
putting  its  bridle  on,  says,  * '  Now  go  my  way, 
and  think  exclusively  as  I  direct  you,"  the 
sense  of  effort  is  immediate  and  fatigue  be- 
gins. Many  persons,  indeed,  not  only  cannot 
think  long  by  will,  that  is,  think  efferently, 
but  they  cannot  even  think  long  afferently  by 
will,  as,  for  example,  in  the  passive  mental 
exercise  of  listening.  If  they  listen  at  all, 
they  must  have  a  constant  variety  of  sensa- 
tion. This  constitutes  one  of  the  signs  of 
mental  degeneracy  of  our  day,  namely,  the 
craving  for  that  low,  afferent  form  of  men- 
307 


BRAIN   AND   PERSONALITY 

tality  which  is  ministered  to  by  what  is  prop- 
erly termed  tlie  sensational. 

Owing  to  its  direct  relations  to  life,  physi- 
ologists have  labored  long  in  their  researches 
into  the  genesis  of  fatigue.  The  Leipzic 
school  especially  has  almost  subordinated 
other  themes  of  physiology  to  this  investiga- 
tion, by  the  most  exhaustive  experiments  with 
numerous  ingenious  devices  to  ascertain  and 
to  measure  how  muscles  are  acted  upon  by 
stimuli,  and  how  they  are  exhausted  by  them. 
But  it  should  be  noted  that  the  only  stimuli 
with  which  they  can  experiment  are  them- 
selves unnatural  and  foreign  to  this  living  tis- 
sue itself.  A  prick  of  a  pin;  a  pinch  with  a 
forceps ;  an  irritating  acid ;  or  their  most  com- 
monly used  agent,  an  electrical  current,  are 
none  of  them  the  natural  stimuli  of  either 
nerve  or  muscle.  In  fact,  cartilage  is  a  bet- 
ter conductor  of  an  electrical  current  than  is 
a  nerve.  But  the  inference  is  that  these  stim- 
uli can  exhaust  a  muscle,  because  they  are  un- 
natural to  it.  Natural  stimuli  are  like  those 
308 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

which  descend  from  the  medulla  to  the  dia- 
phragm muscle,  and  which  never  exhaust  it. 
Nor  do  any  other  stimuli  from  the  medulla 
cause  fatigue,  because  they  all  have  the  char- 
acter of  being  spontaneous,  or  what  is  termed 
automatic. 

But  a  will  stimulus,  called  a  voluntary 
stimulus,  is  necessarily  not  automatic,  and 
hence  distinctly  different  from  automatic 
stimulus.  Here,  therefore,  is  the  secret  of 
the  inevitable  fatigue  which  so-called  volun- 
tary activity  sooner  or  later  occasions.  The 
inference,  therefore,  seems  certain  that  the 
consciousness,  and  particularly  its  most 
vivid  form,  the  active  will,  is  essentially  for- 
eign both  to  the  muscular  and  to  the  nervous 
systems  of  the  body,  including  the  brain 
itself.  If  the  conscious  will  were  not  foreign, 
but  were  natural,  its  exercise  would  not  cause 
fatigue.  Hence  it  must  be  something  super- 
added to  the  body  as  an  extra  burden  for  the 
body  to  carry. 

Such  being  the  case,  the  conclusion  follows 
309 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

that  the  necessity  for  sleep  arises  from  the 
fact  that  the  consciousness  bears  the  relation 
to  the  body  of  the  rider  to  his  horse.  Wliile 
the  rider  directs  the  horse  in  all  his  ways,  he 
is  neither  the  horse  nor  a  constant  part  of  the 
horse,  but  so  different  from  him  that  it  is 
his  added  weight  which  wears  the  animal  out, 
and  makes  it  necessary  for  this  rider  to  dis- 
mount at  stated  intervals  and  leave  the  horse 
wholly  alone.  This  horse  can  get  along  per- 
fectly well  without  this  rider,  and  then  not 
know  what  fatigue  means.  But  the  separate 
load  of  the  consciousness  is  so  far  from  being 
light,  that  no  other  provision  is  possible  than 
its  complete  withdrawal  from  brain  and  body 
until  they  are  both  sufficiently  rested.  All 
animals,  therefore,  require  sleep  in  propor- 
tion to  their  possession  of  consciousness,  but 
more  than  all  man,  because  in  him  conscious- 
ness attains  to  its  highest  activity  in  the  pur- 
posive will. 

To  prevent  misconception  it  should  be  re- 
peated that  it  is   primarily   consciousness, 
with  or  without  the  will,  which  causes  the 
310 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

fatigue  which  necessitates  sleep.  Sleep  is 
common  to  infants  and  animals,  including 
hibernating  animals,  quite  irrespective  of  the 
will,  because  all  forms  of  consciousness  cause 
fatigue  in  proportion  to  their  intensity. 
When  particularly  vivid  and  prolonged,  the 
resultant  weariness  may  be  too  great  for  per- 
fect sleep  to  follow.  Thus,  dogs  after  an  ex- 
citing day's  hunting  often  have  their  sleep 
disturbed  by  their  dreams  of  the  chase.  All 
this  is  because  consciousness  is  itself  a  specific 
stimulus  to  nerve  matter,  just  as  light  and 
sound  are.  In  the  case  of  these  Afferent 
stimuli,  however,  their  source  and  nature  can 
be  easily  identified.  Not  so  consciousness, 
even  in  its  simplest  form  of  a  common  sensa- 
tion. On  Page  162,  in  the  Chapter  on  the 
Evolution  of  a  Nervous  System,  we  remark: 
**  What  is  sensation?  Nobody  knows.  All 
definitions  of  sensation  amount  to  saying  that 
sensation  is  sensation,  for  to  call  it  an  act 
of  the  consciousness  is,  when  translated  into 
Anglo-Saxon,  to  announce  that  the  thing 
which  feels,  feels."  But  when,  instead  of 
311 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

passively  receiving  a  sensation,  the  conscious- 
ness is  actively  excited  by  a  designing  will, 
the  resulting  exhaustion  is  much  greater — 
and  that  constitutes  our  whole  contention. 
What  a  powerful  specific  stimulus  to  a  nerve 
center  the  will  may  be  to  the  degree  of 
causing  destructive  physical  and  chemical 
changes  in  it,  we  have  already  shown  on 
Page  222. 

But  what  becomes  of  the  personality  itself 
when  it  thus  withdraws  ?  We  have  seen  that 
it  must  still  exist  in  its  entirety  during  sleep 
as  well  as  before  sleep.  One  difficulty,"  61 
course,  is  inherent  in  the  problem,  namely, 
that  the  personality  itself  is  always  invisible. 
A  living  brain  when  exposed,  though  it  then 
be  conscious,  shows  no  more  evidence  of  the 
mind  which  is  there  than  does  any  other 
bodily  thing.  The  nearest  we  ever  come  to 
seeing  this  Indweller  is  when  it  makes  the 
eye  flash.  All  that  we  can  say  is  that  our 
consciousness  in  its  relation  to  the  mind  seems 
somewhat  like  a  window  which  is  but  rarely 
opened  wide.  Whole  trains  of  thoughts  may 
312 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

go  on  within  us  with  the  light  of  this  win- 
dow scarcely  falling  upon  them,  except  at  the 
final  conclusions.  Unconscious  cerebration  is 
what  physiologists  call  this  kind  of  thinking. 
But  does  this  kind  of  thinking  go  on  while  the 
window  of  consciousness  is  wholly  closed  dur- 
ing sleep?  There  are  some  facts  of  experi- 
ence which  seem  to  point  that  way.  People 
often  go  to  bed  in  a  state  of  much  perplexity 
or  indecision  about  certain  matters,  and  then 
rise  in  the  morning  much  as  if  they  had  taken 
some  friend's  advice  while  they  were  asleep, 
which  puts  things  in  an  entirely  new  light. 
Others  say  that  they  want  to  sleep  over  a 
question  before  they  will  decide  it.  There  is 
nothing  like  sleep  for  promoting  judicious- 
ness. On  the  other  hand,  some  anecdotes  are 
told  which  appear  to  show  that  occasionally 
the  personality  does  steal  behind  the  closed 
window  of  consciousness  in  sleep,  and  then 
having  the  mental  machine  all  to  itself, 
makes  it  work  even  more  effectively  than  in 
the  waking  estate.  Such  occurrences,  how- 
ever, are  too  few  to  establish  any  general 
principle. 

313 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

Two  such  instances  I  can  personally  vouch 
for.  While  at  college  I  was  told  by  a  fellow- 
student  that  his  room-mate,  named  Childs, 
sat  up  with  him  late  one  night  working  at  a 
difficult  problem  in  mathematics.  Failing  to 
solve  it,  Childs  rubbed  his  slate  clean,  put  out 
the  light,  and  retired  to  bed  in  much  vexa- 
tion. Long  after  midnight  his  chum  was 
awakened  by  a  light,  when  he  saw  Childs  in 
his  nightdress,  busy  with  his  slate.  He  then 
called  to  Childs  to  desist  from  such  untimely 
work,  but  not  receiving  any  answer,  turned 
over  to  sleep.  The  next  morning  while  both 
were  dressing,  Childs  complained  that  his 
night's  rest  had  not  refreshed  him.  **  I  am 
not  surprised,'*  replied  his  friend,  **  when 
you  got  up  about  three  o'clock  and  went  at 
that  problem  again !  ' '  Childs  answered  that 
he  had  done  nothing  of  the  kind,  when,  glanc- 
ing at  the  table,  he  was  astonished  to  find  his 
slate  covered  with  the  problem  all  correctly 
worked  out. 

The  other  instance  was  that  of  a  British 
consul  in  Syria,  who  afterwards  rose  high 
in  the  diplomatic  service.  He  had  been  a  dili- 
314 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

gent  student  of  Arabic,  to  fit  himself  for  the 
duties  of  his  position,  when  one  night  he  tried 
to  compose  a  letter  to  a  Lebanon  Emir. 
Arabic  etiquette  requires  that  such  letters 
should  testify  to  the  accomplishments  of  the 
writer  in  the  selection  of  a  multitude  of  con- 
ventional compliments  corresponding  to  the 
rank  of  the  person  addressed.  When,  besides 
these,  the  matter  in  hand  had  to  be  dealt  with 
very  diplomatically,  the  consul  did  little  that 
evening  but  tear  up  one  letter  after  another 
which  he  had  written,  as  unsatisfactory,  till 
finally  he  stopped  in  despair,  and  went  to  bed 
blessing  all  Arabic  composition  in  general. 
The  next  morning  he  found  on  his  desk  a 
fresh  letter  which  he  must  have  penned,  as  it 
was  in  his  handwriting,  and  so  well  worded, 
that  he  forthwith  dispatched  it. 

But  to  revert  to  the  subject  of  fatigue.  Be- 
cause a  thing  is  as  it  is,  we  cease  either  to 
inquire  or  to  reason  about  it.  But  why  cannot 
we  carry  on  all  the  activities  of  our  conscious 
life,  as  we  do  those  of  our  bodily  life,  without 
fatigue!  Wliy  do  all  voluntary  acts,  whether 
muscle,  nerve  or  brain  be  used  in  them,  lead 
315 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

to  such  exhaustion  that  sleep  becomes  neces- 
sary? Regarded  by  itself  human  fatigue  sup- 
plies one  of  the  strongest  foundation  facts 
for  a  philosophy  of  pessimism.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  speak  of  the  dignity  of  labor.  But 
labor  is  a  curse.  No  rhetorical  halo  cast 
about  it  in  modem  democratic  communities 
when  manual  labor  is  spoken  of,  can  really 
hide  its  intrinsic  odiousness.  The  other  great 
truth,  that  idleness  is  for  man  a  worse  curse, 
does  not  alter  the  fact  that  labor  remains  the 
heavy,  weary  burden  of  human  life.  Muscle 
work  is  the  commonest  and  the  simplest,  and 
hence  can  be  done  also  by  the  ox.  Therefore 
it  is  cheap,  its  pay  is  low,  and  the  man  who 
can  do  no  other  work  is  always  poor.  But 
for  man  this  animal  work  is  so  hateful,  that 
nothing  but  stem  compulsion  keeps  him  at 
it,  as  with  the  great  majority  of  our  race, 
simply  to  get  enough  to  eat.  But  brain  work 
is  harder  yet,  because  the  will  is  then  so  much 
more  engaged.  The  only  compensation  is 
that  it  commands  higher  wages,  because  it 
costs  more  to  produce  it,  and  hence  is  more 
costly.  But  so  difficult  is  this  work  that  no 
316 


THE     SIGNIFICANCE     OF     SLEEP 

form  of  labor  is  more  often  shirked.  Really 
active  brain  workers  are  few,  owing  to  the 
steadiness  of  purpose  which  such  labor  re- 
quires. The  self-reproaches  which  life  retro- 
spects so  commonly  bring  come  from  the 
recognition  that  the  best  course  was  so  often 
not  followed  because  another  was  at  the  time 
easier.  But  human  excellence,  be  it  mental 
or  moral,  is  never  made  easy  of  attainment 
for  us.  We  may  have  every  such  excellence, 
if  we  will  only  pay  for  it  with  its  equivalent 
in  grievous  toil.  Therefore  it  is  to  this  curse 
of  labor  that  so  much  of  human  failure  and 
sorrow  can  be  ascribed.  While  the  sun 
shines,  mankind  carries  its  pathetic  burden 
of  work  till  night  comes  with  its  sleep,  which 
allows  it  for  a  space  to  forget  all  its  woes. 
But  has  this  temporary  oblivion  any  other 
physiological  purpose  than  to  permit  the  bur- 
den to  be  lifted  again? 

Once  more,  we  repeat  that  it  is  no  answer 
to  say  that  fatigue  is  the  simple  result  of  the 
expenditure  of  our  bodily  forces,  a  chemical 
result  of  the  chemical  processes  which  would 
consume  the  candle  of  life  if  kept  too  con- 
317 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

tinuously  burning,  for  we  have  seen  that  this 
is  not  true.  Heart  and  lungs  with  their  work- 
ing muscles  and  energizing  nerves  burn  up 
more  in  their  work  than  any  other  bodily 
things  do,  but  fatigue  never  interferes  with 
nor  follows  upon  their  active  chemical  proc- 
esses. Hence  sleep  may  be  termed  Nature's 
great  anesthetic  for  the  pain  of  labor,  and  re- 
garded as  a  great  blessing,  just  as  chloro- 
form is  a  blessing  for  what  otherwise  would 
be  unendurable.  But  while  we  speak  of  sleep 
as  our  sweet  restorer,  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  living  body  itself  never  needs  this  re- 
storer till  Something  different  from  it  begins 
to  stir  the  brain  with  its  activities. 

We  have  dealt  with  this  subject  of  fatigue 
because  of  its  physiological  import,  for  noth- 
ing could  witness  more  plainly  to  the  sepa- 
rate and  external  nature  of  the  consciousness 
and  of  the  purposive  will,  than  this  virtual 
protest  of  the  physical  frame  against  them 
both,  but  particularly  against  the  will.  It 
need  not  be  wondered  at,  therefore,  that  to 
318 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

many  thoughtful  minds  both  in  ancient  and 
modern  times,  sleep  has  appeared  as  one  of 
the  strongest  of  evidences  that  the  soul  is  not 
of  the  body,  but  distinct  from  it.  Both  body 
and  soul  can  exist  apart  from  each  other.  In 
the  sleeping  stat6  the  body  is  seen  left  en- 
tirely to  itself.  Compared  with  the  waking 
state  the  difference  is  marvelous.  Is  that 
succeeding  amazing  difference  which  comes 
at  the  instant  of  waking,  a  thing  of  physical 
or  chemical  origin?  Could  the  body  create 
the  man  in  that  moment?  Common  sense, 
which  is  the  safe  and  balanced  sum  of  all 
sense,  answers  that  such  a  supposition  is 
nonsense.  Magnetism  and  iron  are  associ- 
ated for  mighty  working  in  a  dynamo,  but 
only  while  the  electrical  current  is  coursing 
through  the  iron.  Then,  in  a  twinkling,  the 
iron  is  only  iron.  Does  the  iron  itself  make 
the  magnetism  every  time  the  connection 
recurs  ? 

Sleep  and  awakening  have  always  made 
mankind  doubt  the  fact  of  human  extinction 
319 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

by  death.  In  the  remotest  past,  when  the 
race  was  represented  by  the  primitive  cave 
dwellers,  they  buried,  with  their  dead, 
weapons  for  the  chase,  food  and  food  utensils, 
and  even  for  the  children  their  little  toys.  A 
minority  of  men  may  now  attempt  to  ascribe 
this  conviction,  which  is  found  everywhere 
and  in  all  times,  merely  to  human  aspiration. 
It  is  true  that  the  human  heart  has  much 
to  say  and  to  ask,  when  loved  ones  lie  dead, 
but  it  is  the  sure  fact  of  sleep  which  makes 
hope  so  reasonable,  by  giving  the  lie  to  every 
doctrine  of  extinction.  We  have  already 
tried  to  picture  a  world  whose  inhabitants, 
though  otherwise  like  ourselves,  had  never 
seen  any  one  sleep,  and  what  a  number  of 
questions  such  a  sight  would  occasion  among 
them.  But  the  sight  of  one  dead  would  be  to 
them  unspeakably  awful,  because,  unlike  us, 
they  had  never  been  prepared  beforehand  by 
any  example  of  a  real  going  away,  followed 
by  a  real  coming  back. 
Yet  for  us  the  only  serious  difference  as 
320 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

regards  personality  between  sleep  and  death, 
is  that  after  death  there  is  no  return.  In 
both  states  the  absence  of  the  personality  is 
complete,  but  does  the  failure  to  return  make 
the  same  absence  then  mean  extinction  when 
it  never  did  so  in  sleep?  No  one  really  be- 
lieves it,  though  one  may  say  he  does.  "What 
is  generic  cannot  be  got  out  of  us  by  logic, 
or  by  anything  else,  and  a  belief  in  a  here- 
after is  as  generic  of  mankind,  as  the  faculty 
of  speech  itself.  The  men  who  nearly  sixty 
centuries  ago  built  those  tremendous  tombs, 
the  Pyramids,  cared  more  about  the  other 
world  than  this.  To  judge  him  by  what  he  ac- 
complished in  every  direction,  unaided  by  for- 
eign teaching  or  by  inheritance  from  the  past, 
the  old  Egyptian  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty  was 
no  fool.  Some  would  say  that  his  solicitude 
about  the  future  life  was  because  his  priest 
frightened  him;  but  then  the  question  im- 
mediately arises,  How  came  the  priest  to  have 
such  power  to  scare  him?  As  an  historical 
fact,  disbelief  in  the  unseen  world  does  not 
321 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

prevail  among  nations  until  they  begin  to 
rot.  In  Greece  it  was  not  in  the  age  of 
Marathon,  or  of  Aristides,  that  such  infidels 
abounded;  but  in  the  wretched  times  when 
only  rhetoricians  and  sophists  flourished. 
When  Rome  was  all  iron,  the  Roman  was  a 
devout  man;  but  in  the  slavish  days  of  a 
Tiberius  and  a  Domitian,  he  became  an  Epi- 
curean, The  brain  does  not  work  well  with 
the  blood  reaching  it  after  coursing  through 
gangrenous  tissues. 

The  lack  of  any  returning  traveler  to  tell 
of  the  world  beyond,  caused  primitive  and 
ancient  peoples  to  picture  it  each  for  them- 
selves. But  as  the  imagination  can  do  noth- 
ing but  reproduce  earthly  scenes,  so  the 
Egyptian  had  another  Egypt;  the  Greek, 
Elysian  fields;  and  the  American  Indian, 
happy  hunting  grounds.  On  the  other  hand, 
with  the  dark  grave  as  its  portal,  an  associa- 
tion of  gloom  often  remained  inseparable 
from  thoughts  of  the  abode  of  the  dead. 
Homer  depicts  the  wise  Ulysses  descending 
322 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

there  and  finding  it  a  cheerless  place,  where 
even  the  greatest  departed  heroes  live  only  as 
weak,  moumfnl  specters,  so  that  Achilles 
tells  his  old  friend,  **  I  would  rather  be  one 
of  earth's  plowmen,  working  for  another 
poor,  impoverished  man,  than  to  rule  all  the 
shades  of  the  dead!  '* 

But  the  light  which  modem  science  has 
shed  upon  the  facts  of  life  can  suggest,  too, 
when  duly  pondered,  quite  different  trains 
of  thought,  or,  if  you  please,  of  mental  pic- 
tures of  another  life  than  this  awaiting  us. 
The  mental  and  moral  equipment  of  man 
seem  sufficient  for  any  future  life,  however 
limitless  its  conditions.  Locality,  which  held 
such  an  exclusive  place  in  ancient  concep- 
tions, can  be  wholly  subordinated  now  to 
questions  about  states  of  being.  We  can  now 
conceive  of  a  body  no  longer  made  of  the  most 
temporary  forms  of  that  matter  which  is 
itself  passing  away,  but  fashioned  to  be  a 
dynamic  body,  a  body  of  power  which  need 
not  shrink,  as  here,  from  the  heavy  burden 
323 


BRAIN   AND    PERSONALITY 

of  the  will.  There  should  be  no  night  there, 
for  sleep  will  not  be  needed,  when  purpose 
does  not  weary  nor  its  exercise  fatigue.  Then 
as  to  the  mind :  we  know  that  at  present  the 
word  Enough  is  only  understood,  but  not  ex- 
perienced, by  man,  and  the  opportunities  for 
knowledge  in  a  universe  would  not  be  too 
many  for  his  desires.  But  above  all  rises  a 
conception  of  a  perfection  of  being,  when  the 
will  so  responds  to  the  highest  motives  alone, 
that  there  could  be  no  conflict  with  lower 
motives  forever  I 

Often  we  fail  to  appreciate  all  which  death 
implies  when  it  comes  at  the  end  of  a  long, 
wasting  disease,  marked  by  progressive  en- 
f eeblement  of  the  bodily  powers  and  by  cloud- 
ing of  the  mind.  At  such  times  it  may  simply 
appear  as  a  physical  process,  like  a  candle 
slowly  burning  itself  out.  But  it  is  quite 
otherwise  when  a  man,  it  may  be  an  excep- 
tional man  as  regards  mind,  altogether  leaves 
us  in  an  instant.  How  are  we  then  stunned 
at  being  thus  confronted  with  the  whole  mys- 
324 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF.  SLEEP 

teiy  of  our  being!  There  is  nothing  so  im- 
pressive as  this:  a  living  embodiment  of 
personal  mental  power  before  us  one  moment, 
and  in  another  gone  from  us  forever.  How- 
ever it  may  have  been  with  us  before,  the 
Here  and  the  Hereafter  cannot  now  be 
divided  in  our  minds,  for  the  one  follows  too 
quickly  upon  the  other  to  let  us  believe  that 
there  is  no  link  between  them. 

One  event  of  this  kind,  which  happened  on 
a  public  occasion  in  New  York,  will  not  be 
forgotten  to  the  end  of  his  days  by  any  one 
who  witnessed  it.  Our  whole  great  country, 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  was  then  agi- 
tated by  the  discussion  of  the  great  human 
question,  What  is  Money!  A  coin  may  be 
one  of  the  smallest  things  that  man  makes,  but 
however  small  it  testifies  to  ideas  of  value 
utterly  beyond  the  comprehension  of  any 
other  animal  than  man,  because  in  that  ma- 
terial thing  are  represented  the  existence  of 
law,  fixed  institutions  and  society  as  it  ad- 
justs the  relations  of  individuals  to  one 
325 


BRAIN     AND    PERSONALITY 

another.  So  entirely  ideal,  however,  is 
money,  that  on  a  piece  of  paper  which  may  be 
burnt  with  a  match  may  be  printed  what 
would  make  it  more  valuable  than  any  other 
one  thing  on  earth.  But  whatever  money's 
outward  form,  it  must  always  represent  its 
equivalent  in  human  labor.  Nothing  but  that 
gives  its  value  to  money.  Coin  or  paper  pro- 
duced without  that  costly  antecedent  cannot 
be  money,  however  much  men  may  insist  that 
it  is.  But  because  money  itself  has  no  exist- 
ence outside  of  agreement  between  men,  so 
good  faith  in  that  agreement  is  its  sole  basis. 
So  sure  is  this  law  that  every  social  tie  in  a 
great  country  may  be  endangered  by  a  loss 
of  faith  in  what  purports  to  be  its  money.  It 
requires,  therefore,  great  mental  grasp  to 
perceive  clearly  through  all  the  incalculably 
complex  relations  of  civilized  life  what  a  mo- 
mentous meaning  attaches  to  the  word  Credit. 
With  credit  gone,  everything  goes,  because 
men  no  longer  know  how  to  deal  with  each 
other.  A  country's  minister  of  finance, 
326 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

therefore,  should  be  above  all  others  one  who 
can  quickly  see  what  imperils  its  public 
credit,  and  just  how  it  does  so. 

On  January  29th,  1891,  the  New  York 
Board  of  Trade  and  of  Transportation  held 
its  annual  dinner.  Representing,  as  it  did, 
the  greatest  business  interests  of  the  land, 
and  with  the  whole  country  stirred  by  the 
financial  question,  it  invited  the  then  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  to 
address  it  on  that  occasion.  Every  one  was 
eagerly  waiting  for  what  he  would  then  say, 
because  he  was  a  statesman  long  and  widely 
known  as  a  man  not  only  of  great  ability,  but 
of  the  highest  personal  character.  After 
holding  many  public  positions  in  his  own 
western  State  of  Minnesota,  he  was  elected 
to  the  national  House  of  Representatives, 
where  for  ten  years  he  held  the  responsible 
position  of  Chairman  of  the  Financial  Com- 
mittee of  the  House,  that  of  "Ways  and  Means. 
In  that  position  he  actively  contended  for, 
and  finally  won,  an  object  which  had  strongly 
327 


BRAIN    AND    PERSONALITY 

enlisted  his  Christian  sympathies,  by  a  bill 
directed  against  the  great  abuses  by  Govern- 
ment agents  in  their  dealing  with  the  Indian 
tribes.  He  then  served  for  ten  years  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  once  losing  his  seat  in 
that  body  because  he  would  not  sacrifice  his 
convictions  on  the  money  question,  as  did 
others  among  his  party's  leaders  in  his  State. 
He  then  served  twice  as  a  Cabinet  officer,  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Nor  were  his 
hearers  now  disappointed  with  what  he  had 
to  say.  After  a  masterly  review  of  the  whole 
subject  of  what  money  is  and  always  must 
be  to  make  it  money,  he  characteristically 
brushed  aside  all  other  issues  to  insist  on  the 
moral  aspects  of  good  faith  as  the  one  vital 
principle  underlying  everything  financial. 
The  words  which  he  then  spoke  were  printed 
day  after  day  on  the  front  pages  of  many  of 
the  most  prominent  newspapers  in  the 
country,  and  served  to  determine  thousands 
of  men  how  to  vote  when  the  time  came. 
These  words  were :  "As  poison  in  the  blood 
328 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE     OF    SLEEP 

permeates  arteries,  veins,  nerves,  brain  and 
heart,  and  speedily  brings  paralysis  or  death, 
so  does  a  debased  or  fluctuating  currency  per- 
meate all  the  arteries  of  trade,  paralyze  all 
kinds  of  business,  and  bring  disaster  to  all 
classes  of  people.  It  is  as  impossible  for 
commerce  to  flourish  with  such  an  instrument, 
as  it  is  for  the  human  body  to  grow  strong 
and  vigorous  with  a  deadly  poison  lurking  in 
the  blood. '» 

As  he  uttered  these  last  words — "  in  the 
blood  " — his  tongue  faltered,  he  sank  to  the 
floor,  and  in  a  moment  of  time  he  was  gone ! 
What  was  it  that  happened  to  William  Win- 
dom,  the  man  who  had  always  been  a  leader 
wherever  he  was ;  an  influential  legislator,  an 
active  philanthropist,  and  an  eminent  states- 
man, whose  great  services  to  his  country  at  a 
most  critical  time  will  never  be  forgotten? 

Human    philosophy    and    human    science 

hardly  know  what  to  say  in  reply.    A  higher 

voice  than  either  of  theirs  answers :  * '  He  fell 

asleep!  for  after  sleep  cometh  awakening  I  *' 

329 


INDEX 

Afferent:  congenital,  199;  effect  of  the  loss  of,  203;  a  fash- 
ioner of  nerve  tissue,  242;  function  of,  145-148;  pre- 
ceded and  created  the  efferent,  171;  work  automati- 
cally, 198. 

Alcmseon,  traces  nerves  to  brain,  10. 

Ambidextry,  note  on,  239-241. 

Amusia,  187. 

Apes,  brains  of,  77-78. 

Aphasia,  96,  127. 

Aretffius  of  Cappadocia,  brain  theory,  12. 

Aristotle,  brain  theory,  7-8. 

Association  fibers,  249. 

Asthma,  various  forms  of,  157-158. 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  theory  of  heart  action,  16. 

Bailey,  Dr.  Pearce,  neurologist,  63,  64. 

Bantu  languages,   83. 

Brain:  ancient  theories  concerning,  5-15;  both  hemispheres 
not  absolutely  necessary,  57,  60-69,  194-197;  cannot 
create  personality,  234;  influence  of  the  hand  on,  27; 
instrument  of  the  personality,  196,  242;  likened  to  a 
library,  298;  to  a  musical  instrument,  32-36,  45-46; 
pair  organ,  56-74;  results  of  disease  and  injury  in. 
62-64,  88-105,  184,  189,  237;  supposed  relation  of  hair 
to,  15-16;  supposed  to  be  a  secreting  gland,  14,  54; 
weight  and  size  of,  49-53;  when  demonstrated  as  seat 
of  thought  and  feeling,  12. 

Brain  poisons,  43-44. 

Brain  weights  of  distinguished  men,  50. 

Broca's  convolution,  23,  26,  116;  effects  of  injury  to,  94-96, 
109-110;  speech  center  located  in,  107,  109;  writing 
center   located  in,   124. 

331 


INDEX 

Bruce,  Prof.  Alexander,  cited,  67. 

Cabanis,  Pierre  J.  6.,  brain  theory,  14. 

Carp,  brain  of,   164. 

Cerebral  localization,  24-29. 

Charcot,  Jean  M.,  physiologist,  25. 

Chromosomes,  132. 

CliflFord,  Prof.,  on  mind  and  matter,  293. 

Corpus  callosum,  or  commissure,  function  of,  65;   results 

of  absence  of,  65-67. 
Cortex,  or  gray  matter,  description  of,  40-41;  injuries  to, 

29,  42,  62-64,  73,  88-105,  182;   physical  basis  of  the 

mind,  48;  seat  of  thought,  40,  42;  source  of  thought, 

54. 
Crooke,  Hilkiah,  theory  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  hair, 

15-16. 
Cuneus,  the  center  of  sight,  185. 
Darwin,  size  of  head,  53. 
Dawson,  James,  cited,   118. 
Democritus,  on  mind  and  matter,  293. 
Depressor  nerve,  245-247. 
Descartes'  conception  of  mind,  14-15. 
Dollinger,  Johann,  brain  weight  of,  52. 
Ear,  relation  to  the  mind,  202,  203. 
Edgren,  Prof.,  cited,  100. 

Efferent  nerves,  147-148;  created  by  the  afferent,  171. 
Ehrenberg,  discoverer  of  the  nerve  cell,  17. 
Eichler,  neurologist,  66. 
Epilepsy  an  afferent  excitation,  148. 
Erastitratus,  anatomy  of  the  brain,  11. 
Erb,  Prof.,  neurologist,  67. 
Eye,  relation  to  the  mind,  202-203. 
Terrier,  James  F.,  metaphysician,  25. 
Flourens,  Marie  J.  P.,  neurologist,  21. 
Foster,  Sir  Michael,  cited,  58,  252. 
Frog,  brain  of,  165. 
Frontal  lobes,  effects  of  injury  to,  227-230. 

332 


INDEX 

Galen,  brain  the  seat  of  thought  and  feeling,  12. 

Gall,  Franz  Joseph,  phrenologist,  19-20. 

Good,  Dr.  J.  M.,  brain  theory,  17. 

Gratiolet,  neurologist,  21. 

Habit  the  foundation  of  the  nervous  system,  143-144. 

Hale,  Bishop,  cited,   117. 

Hand,  influence  of  on  the  brain,  27. 

Hansemann,  Prof.  David,  brain  weights  of  eminent  men, 

52-53. 
Haschish,  or  Indian  hemp,  effect  on  the  brain,  44. 
Hegel,  on  mind  and  matter,  294. 
Helmholtz,  brain  weight  of,  52. 
Herophilus,  anatomy  of  the  brain,  11. 
Hinshelwood,  Prof.,  cited,  97,  98. 
Hippocrates,  theory  of  the  brain,  8-9,  14. 
Hitzig,  physiologist,  24. 
Huxley  on  the  brains  of  apes,  78 ;  on  the  faculty  of  speech, 

80. 
Inhibition,  159-161,  244-251. 
Interest,  motive  power  of  the  will,  282-285. 
Keller,  Helen,  cited,  204-215. 
Labor  a  curse,  316. 
Lamprey,  brain  of,  163. 
Longet,   neurologist,  21. 
Luciani,   physiologist,  25. 
MacEwen,  Sir  William,  cited,  182. 
Majendie,  neurologist,  21. 

Marshall,  Prof.  John,  list  of  brain  weights,  50. 
Microscope,   importance  of  in  settling  the  nature  of  the 

brain,  17. 
Mind-blindness,  182-184. 
Mind-deafness,  188. 
Misers,   283-285. 

MUller,  Johannes,  size  of  head,  53. 
Mailer,  Max,  on  the  Turkish  language,  82-83. 
Munk,  physiologist,  25. 

333 


INDEX 

Napoleon,  size  of  head,  53. 

Nerve  cell,  first  discovery  of,  17. 

Nerve  currents,  rate  of  travel  of,  251-252. 

Nerve  fibers:  description  of  growth  of,  217-220;  fashioned 

by  the  personal  will,  224. 
Nerves  erroneously  called  "tendons,"  10-11. 
Nervous  system,  description  of,  132-174;   spinal  cord  the 

original,   149. 
Ontology,   291. 

Pair  organs,  why  we  have  them,  61. 
Paraphasia,  100. 

Pearl,  Dr.  Raymond,  brain  weights  of  various  races,  51. 
Pearson,  Prof.  Karl,  brain  weights  of  various  races,  51. 
Personality:   creates  brain,  234;   power  behind  the  brain, 

194,  195,  199;  relation  of  the  afferent  to,  203. 
Phonograph  likened  to  the  brain,  192. 
Pigeon,  brain  of,  167. 
Plato,  theory  of  the  brain,  6-7. 
Precuneus,  186. 
Prefrontal  lobe,  226. 
Purkinje's  discovery  of  brain  cells,  17. 
Reason:  mind's  highest  attribute,  260;  servant  of  the  will, 

262,  267. 
Reflex  action,  21. 

Responsibility  a  human  attribute,  254-255. 
Roth,  Dr.  Walter,  cited,  112. 
Schafer,  Prof.,  cited,  227. 
Schleiden  and  Schwann  demonstrate  cells,  18. 
Self-possession,   273. 
Sherrington,  Prof.,  cited,  146. 
Sight  center,  185. 
Sign  language,  112-113. 
Sleep:  Nature's  anesthetic  for  labor,  318;  not  extinction. 

300,   320;    personality   sometimes   works   during.   313- 

315;   significance  of,  286-329;   why  needed,  301,  310, 
Sneeze,  how  caused,  148. 

334 


INDEX 

Speech,  faculty  of:   acquired,  not  congenital,  28,  81,  106, 

197;  anatomical  seats  of,  24-27;  beginning  of,  27,  84, 

108,  111;  mind  is  the  source  of,  85. 
Speech  centers,  location  of,  107;  created  by  the  individual, 

180. 
Spinal  cord  the  original  nervous  system,  149;  structure  of, 

154. 
Spinoza  on  free  will,  256. 
Spurzheim,    phrenologist,    19. 
Touch,  sense  of,  215-217. 
Turkish  language,  82-83. 
Vasomotor  nerves,  246. 
Vogt,  Karl,  brain  theory,  14. 
Wagner,  Richard,  size  of  head,  53. 
Will:   an  agent  in  fashioning  brain  matter,  220-224,  238, 

266;  freedom  of  the,  259;  higher  than  the  mind,  253, 

260;  often  confounded  with  mind,  265. 
Windom,  William,  death  of,  329. 
Wisdom,  definition  of,  277. 
Word-blindness,  24,  26,  89,  97,  184. 
Word-deafness,  24,  26,  90,  98,  187. 
Words,    relation    of    the   brain    to,    88-105;    relation    of 

thoughts  to,  85-87. 


335 


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